Sabrena Swept Away

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

The author of the acclaimed A Bit of Earth reimagines classic characters from The One Thousand and One Nights. Sabrena’s family has always claimed they are descended from the legendary sailor Sinbad. But when the sea calls Sabrena to a whole new world, she’ll have to fight for her own story. For fans of The Last Mapmaker and Mañanaland.

This happened. Or maybe it did not.That is how stories begin. Because whether you believe them—or not—depends on you.Sabrena’s destiny—her qadr—is strong. Or so her family has always said. After all, according to her dad, they are the descendants of the legendary Sinbad the sailor, who sailed the seven seas in The One Thousand and One Nights. But Sabrena has felt anything but strong lately. Mostly, she has felt worried. Worried about being the new girl in a school everyone else has attended since kindergarten, worried about Grandma’s memory failing and her stories getting more outlandish, worried about Mom deciding Grandma can’t even live at home anymore. Worried about the strange—almost fantastical—things that keep happening whenever she’s around water lately.And then, one day, the sea’s call will not be denied. It floods into her life and sweeps her away, to be fished out of an ocean both strange and oddly familiar. It only takes her a moment to realize that she’s in the stories spun by the legendary queen Scheherazade. Yet no one has ever heard of Sinbad, nothing seems to be going quite as it does in the tales as she knows them, and a frightening jinn is terrorizing the kingdom. Can Sabrena find the courage to claim her destiny before it’s too late?Inspired by the classic One Thousand and One Nights, acclaimed author Karuna Riazi has crafted a tantalizing tale about fate, family, imagination, and the power of a good story. Sabrena Swept Away is a thematically rich adventure that will resonate with fans of Christina Soontornvat’s The Last Mapmaker.

About the Author

Karuna Riazi is the author of the acclaimed A Bit of Earth as well as the duology The Gauntlet and The Battle. She holds a BA in English literature from Hofstra University and an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University. She is an online diversity advocate and an educator, and her work has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Shondaland, and Teen Vogue, among others. A born-and-raised New Yorker, Karuna Riazi lives on Long Island.