Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Oxford Story Collections
King Shahryar kills a new wife every night, because he is afraid she will stop loving him. But his new bride Shahrazad has a clever plan to save herself. Her nightly stories--of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many other heroes and villains--are so engrossing that King Shahryar has to postpone her execution again and again... This illustrated edition brings together all the Arabian Nights tales in an original retelling by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean.
"McCaughrean could probably weave a mesmerizing tale from the copy on the back of a cereal box."--Publishers Weekly "Teachers and librarians will find this version a wonderful addition to school programs focusing on world literature." -- Territorial Tattler
About the Author
Geraldine McCaughrean is a prize-winning author - winner of Carnegie Medal, Guardian Children's Fiction Award, Whitbread Award (twice) and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award.
Product Details
Reading level: Ages 10 and up
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 6, 2000)
It's 30 years now since I first got published, and 50 since I found out how writing let me step outside my little, everyday world and go wherever I chose - way back in Time, to far distant shores, towards my own, home-made happy ending. Not that all my books are an easy ride. I write adventure, first and foremost, because that's what I enjoyed reading as a child. But since I have published over 150 books now, there are all manner of books in among that number - gorgeously illustated picture books, easy readers, prize winners, teenage books and five adult novels. The White Darkness won the Printz Award in the USA, which, for as Englishwoman, was the most amazing, startling thrill. Then there was Peter Pan in Scarlet - official sequel to J M Barrie's Peter Pan, written on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hopsital for Sick Children. I won the chance to write that in a worldwide competition, and because Peter Pan is loved everywhere, my book sold worldwide too. I can't say I expected that when, as a child, I dreamed of being like my older brother and getting a book published one day. These days I have a husband (who's good at continuity and spelling) and a daughter who is an excellent editor. But she's at the Royal Academy of Dramtic Art now, studying to become an actor. So, naturally, I have turned my hand to writing plays. (So many actors, so few plays!) My Mum told me, "Never boil your cabbages twice, dear," which was her way of saying, "Don't repeat yourself." So I have tried never to write the same book twice. You'll find all my novels quite different from one another. I have also done lots of retellings of myth, legend, folk and fairy tales, and adapted indigestible classics such as El Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Shakespeare and the Pilgrim's Progress. Something for everyone, you see, my dear young, not-so-young, eccentric, middle-of-the-road, poetical, sad, cheerful, timid or reckless reader. All they have in common is that they all contain words. If you are allergic to words, you'd best not open the covers.
As the teacher of an elementary school program for gifted and talented children, I wanted to introduce my fourth-grade students to the wonderful tales of the Arabian Nights that I so enjoyed myself as a child. I scanned virtually every translation I could find and found strong reasons not to select any of them--the language was old-fashioned and stilted, making the wonderful tales dreary to read. Then I came across this translation and knew I had found what I was looking for. The author writes in a clear, accessible style that truly brings these wonderful tales to life for a modern audience. The enthusiasm my students show for these stories demonstrates McCaughrean's skill as an author. I highly recommend this book for both children and adults.
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This is one of the best versions of these stories in my opinion, and is particularly suitable for older children who are ready to move beyond simple children's stories. The stories are only a bit "straightened up" for contemporay audiences, but they retain the language and the fanatastic elements that people turn to these Tales to enjoy. The stories also retain some of the violent and cruel plots twists of the original, another reason you may not want to use these as bedtime stories for little children.
All the major Arabian Nights stories and most of the minor ones are included; and the "frame story" of the Shah and his clever wife is carried throughout the book very nicely. Each story told by Shahrezade serves a secondary purpose of advancing the tale of the royal couple's evolving relationship, and so the ending is more truly satisfying than in any other version of the Arabian Nights.
The illustrations in 1996 edition by Stephan Lavis are good as well, and add to the storyland feeling of the tales. (The only quibble I have hear is with the white European look of most of the characters in the drawings.) I don't know about the pictures in the latest edition.
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This review is from: One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Oxford Story Collections) (Paperback)
Words cannot describe the fantastic quality of this collection of Arabic literature. But don't get the book just to read the tale of Ala al-Din (Aladdin) and his Wonderful Lamp, because the other tales included surpass this merely moderate one by far - although it's interesting to find out that a black midget is Aladdin's primary nemesis (upon who Disney's Jafar is based, apparently).
The stories touch on such a wide variety of unusual topics: a man's visit to the kingdom of mermaids, a dead beggar getting tripped over again and again, a guy claiming to have several volcanoes in a portable bag, a Sultan's escape from a buffalo-faced woman in the presence of a group of pink ladies, and the marriage of a prince to a turtle. Insane stuff.
My favorite story is The Everlasting Shoes by far. It's quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever read. It's about an old miser who's so cheap he never buys new shoes. He just patches up the pair he has whenever they get holes. The addition of so many patches naturally make his shoes bigger and bigger. Eventually the shoes become ridiculously huge and heavy and smelly, and they make a lot of noise as the miser walks. The scene of the shoes being thrown into the river and getting caught in the millwork is well worth the price of the entire book.
There's a story in here that looks VERY much like a mid-east version of Cinderella. Quite interesting.
I am unable to tell how many liberties the author has taken in translating the tales, but they're definitely fun to read. There are tons of ancient day metaphors and funny insults like, "You flea on a cockroach's kneecap!" and "Son of a plank! Did you steal your brains from a table?" I really liked reading the misfortunes of the protagonist in the Keys of Destiny stories, and the nagging wives that appear sporadically are pretty darn funny.
The things I didn't like about this book were very few. Only its frequent mentioning of Allah and the puzzling weakness of its 998th and 999th stories about a flying toy horse.
I would recommend the Arabian Knights to anybody over the age of fifteen; probably because I was so surprised at the large amount of enjoyable humor.
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First Sentence:
Stories are carried from the desert kingdoms of India and Persia and Arabia-but who can tell if they are true? Read the first pageKey Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
King Shahryar, Ali Baba, Abu Kassim, Land Abdallah, Hasan Abdallah, Sea Abdallah, Prince Kamar, Sinbad the Sailor, Sultan Mahmud, Muin ibn Zaid, King Sabur, Magic Book, Sidi Ahmad, Ali ibn Ali, City of Many Columns, King of Rum, King's Wazir, Princess Shams, Sultan Muhammad, Ali ibn Ahmad of Khurasan, Chinese Princess, Revenge of All Animals, Sultan Thailun, Tale of the Anklet, Victory Gate
New! Concordance
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