King Solomon has placed his daugh­ter Mag­da in a tow­er to pro­tect her from mar­ry­ing the wrong man. When she gets lone­ly, the Ziz is sum­moned to keep her com­pa­ny. She rides on his wings, delight­ing in the many inter­est­ing sights they see all over the world. They save a man whose boat hit a ter­ri­ble storm. Princess Mag­da is smit­ten, while the Ziz is jeal­ous of the atten­tion the young man gets. When she asks the Ziz to find the man again, he cir­cles around and pre­tends not to find him. King Solomon calls the Ziz to his palace, where the Ziz explains what hap­pened. The king decides that if the man makes his daugh­ter hap­py, he will allow a mar­riage. The princess mar­ries, under a chup­pah of the Ziz’s wings. The princess’s chil­dren love rid­ing on the back of the Ziz. Who doesn’t like a sto­ry about a princess locked in a tow­er, true love, and a bum­bling, if lov­able hero? Although the sto­ry is a stretch in terms of Jew­ish sen­si­bil­i­ty, the col­or­ful illus­tra­tions will delight young read­ers. The Ziz’s exam­ple of try­ing to be nice to the princess while dis­obey­ing the king, then get­ting jeal­ous of the man, may con­fuse the point of the sto­ry, but it ends hap­pi­ly for every­one. While the first of the series, The Hard­est Word, has the most sol­id and Jew­ish sto­ry line, fans aged four through eight will wel­come the big bird’s lat­est exploits.

Book Trail­er