Cirrus@Austlit

'It's Ruby Rosemount's twelfth birthday. It's also the first day of the school holidays, and Ruby has just read a new message on her mother's list of holiday instructions: Do not enter the attic alone. As Ruby is puzzling over this new rule, she receives a letter from her exotic and much-loved grandmother, and learns that she'll find a special gift in the attic. Ruby can't resist. She goes into the attic, and to her amazement she finds that Granny McQuirky's gift is a magic carpet.

'So begins a magical adventure which sees Ruby travelling to an oasis in a far-off desert land. Here genies, villains, sand sprites and magic spells will test all her powers - including some she still doesn't know she has.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Babaganoosh spread her wings like a swan. With several mighty beats that sent the dead leaves scuttling she rose up past the naked treetops, up, up, up until they were surrounded by stars and lit by the moon...

'Ruby's friends arrive on a flying camel to use one of the most valuable magical objects that Granny McQuirky keeps in the attic - the travellers telescope. When Ruby's house-proud mother gives it a polish, she sets off a series of strange and dangerous events that catapult Ruby, the magic carpet, Avalon and Jaffa into a dark forest in a far off land.

'To Ruby's horror she discovers they are not alone... '

Source: Publisher's blurb.