Arabian Nights / 1001 Nights

To celebrate this term’s theme of ‘From Book to Book’ I was asked to write a book review for my favourite book. But storytime every other night with my Mum as a child, then reading throughout school and into university means I’ve read a lot of books over the years and therefore choosing a favourite among them is very difficult. So, I’ll be honest – I’ve cheated.

Every afternoon the cruel King marries a new beautiful woman, and the next morning he kills her, to replace her with a newer, more beautiful one. But Scheherazade, his latest wife weaves a tale of mystery and adventure, a story that he, and the reader, can’t wait to hear the end of. So much so he has to keep her alive.

And so we travel through the 1001 nights hearing stories Sinbad the Sailor fighting giants and monsters, a cunning fisherman making deals with a genie, Ali Baba and his dangerous band of thieves, Aladdin and his lamp and of course the overarching story of the King and his storytelling wife.

The final beauty of the book is that is genuinely can be read by all ages. I’ve used it as a case study in my secondary school critical reading and writing classes to take about book structure and form, and we’ve read parts of a simplified version in my Kindergarden classes and I love to read it still. It has to be one of my all-time favourite books and I’m very happy that it’s being added to the i-Learner library!