A healing stew that can only cure if its ingredients have been bought with money begged from passersby simmers at the center of Oppenheim's (The Hundredth Name) uplifting tale. Ali ibn Ali, the spoiled son of a rich merchant, scoffs at the beggar outside their palace gates and asks why his parents allow him to sit there. "A true Muslim gives to the poor, the crippled, the homeless, the hungry. That beggar is all of these," replies his mother, "a woman of great beauty and even greater kindness." When Ali's beloved father falls ill after a business trip, he requests shula kalambar, a stew. The beggar at the gate tells Ali that he must beg for the money to buy the stew's components. The boy swallows his pride and dons the beggar's ragged cloak to help his father, enduring jeers and catcalls until he completes his mission. His father is healed, and Ali, full of new humility, approaches the beggar he once despised to thank him. Pels (Spectacles) characterizes the beggar as profoundly serene, sitting in a Zen-like posture, thus creating a mystical presence for this spiritual guide. Multilayered tableaux incorporate computer-altered images of kilims, copper vessels and exotic fabrics; the jewels on the family appear to glisten. Oppenheim's text moves right along, and delivers an ageless moral. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)
