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    Tales From the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal
    Tales From the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal
    Tales From the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal
    Audiobook5 hours

    Tales From the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal

    Written by Donna Jo Napoli and Christina Balit

    Narrated by Christina Moore

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Classic stories and dazzling illustrations of princesses, kings, sailors, and genies come to life in a stunning retelling of the Arabian folk tales from One Thousand and One Nights and other collections, including those of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, and Al Baba and the Forty Thieves. The magical storytelling of award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli dramatizes these timeless tales and ignites childrens' imaginations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 25, 2016
    ISBN9781501944680
    Tales From the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal
    Author

    Donna Jo Napoli

    Donna Jo Napoli is a distinguished academic in the field of linguistics and teaches at Swarthmore College. She is also the author of more than eighty books for young readers.

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    Reviews for Tales From the Arabian Nights

    4/5

    17 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Scheherazade tells her tales. Sometimes she tells of other people telling the tale. So a story within a story.There are interludes between the story where author discusses the historical background of items, thoughts, traditions brought up in the stories.
    • 3/5
      Donna Jo Napoli and Christina Balit, the author/illustrator team behind such titles as Treasury of Greek Mythology, Treasury of Egyptian Mythology and Treasury of Norse Mythology, all also published by National Geographic, turn in this title to the Arabian Nights - that fabulous collection of Middle Eastern stories also sometimes known as the 1001 Nights. Napoli maintains the framing story of Scheherazade in her retelling, exploring how this inventive young storyteller must use her gift in order to prolong and save her own life, bringing healing to her husband, a man embittered by his first wife's betrayal, who had vowed to execute each new wife after a single night of wedlock, so that none could prove unfaithful to him. Although her narrator is meant to tell 1001 stories, over the course of 1001 nights, Napoli chooses a selection of the tales contained in the original for inclusion here, from favorites such as Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the many voyages of Sindbad the Sailor and Aladdin, to other selections, such as the tales of Maaruf the Cobbler, that of Qamar Al-Zaman, or that of King Yunan and Sage Duban. The after matter includes a discussion of Napoli's adaptation strategy, her source material, a map of the Middle East, and an index...Although I have read a number of retellings of specific stories from the Arabian Nights, particularly Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin (mentioned above), I have never read the story collection in its entirety, nor have I read a great many anthologies taken from that collection, making Tales from the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal a pleasure. Some of Napoli's other books in this vein have been marred by her tendency as a narrator to moralize, something I have found intrusive. Here however, this tendency is subsumed by the narrator Scheherazade, whose criticisms feel entirely appropriate, given her precarious situation. The tales themselves were engaging, and I appreciated the way in which various levels of story - the framing story of Scheherazade, the stories told by Scheherazade, the stories told by characters within the stories being told, and so on - were all intertwined in one complicated but satisfying whole. As usual, I found Christina Balit's accompanying illustrations absolutely gorgeous - her artwork is in fact the reason that I tracked down these Napoli collections in the first place. Recommended to readers looking for an anthology of stories from the Arabian Nights adapted for children - middle grades and above, I would say - and to fellow fans of Balit's work.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the best collections of the Arabian Nights stories for children that I have found. I like that the links between the stories are preserved and there are informative sidebars that explain a detail about Middle Easter/Islamic culture that is relevant to the story. I would like a little bit more about the stories in the end notes. National Geographic has a series of most major world folklores.
    • 5/5
      Does your child love stories full of adventure? Does your daughter dream of being a princess or living in a royal kingdom? This book is full of stories to delight all the imaginations of your children and fill their dreams with visions of genies, kings, and families full of wild tales.Scheherazade comes up with a way to tell stories to her husband in the hopes of being granted another day of life. Her adventurous stories engage and excite the reader or listener and leave them guessing the conclusion to many of the fables along with maybe learning a few life lessons along the way.This is quite a large and heavy book, but perfect for night-time storytelling. You can read a story in just a few minutes before bed and your child can savor the tale while drifting off to sleep.The pages are full of gorgeous illustrations that depict a culture much different from one here in the United States. The clothing is elaborate as is the architecture and the illustrations show the beautiful details on the pages.One tale that I remembered reading as a child was "The Tale of Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves" . It's full of greed and jealousy. But it also reminds us of the treasure we have and then holding onto it. Each of the stories also has various sidebars that give information related to the culture and current traditions. Some of these stories are a bit gory or have parts you wouldn't want to read to young children. But, older elementary children who love adventure will appreciate the folklore and history tied to these stories.With 24 stories, this book can last many nights by reading just a story at a time. The back of the book offers a map of the Middle East and a bibliography for those who want to learn more about a particular legend or folk tale.This would make a wonderful gift for the adventurous child and one that could be passed on for generations.
    • 4/5
      This retelling of the over 1,000 stories that comprise the Arabian Nights is compressed into 25 stories.Tales of Aladdin, of genies in lamps, flying carpets, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves make up part of the lore of India, China, Arabia, and the Far East. Author Donna Jo Napoli has selected 25 of the stories and rewritten them keeping well to those handed down through the years. The illustrations of Christina Balit are stunning blasts of vivid color and swirling imagery that stays true to real and perceived images of these fantastic fables.Most familiar to me of the 25 in this stunning book are "Aladdin," "Sinbad the Sailor," and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." The stories are such that older readers will enjoy an evening reading these old tales and the young children will grasp much of the excitement and hopefully not be too frightened or excited for bedtime.Parents should keep in mind that these stories are not for the faint-of-heart. There is an ogress, scary genies (jinni), chopping off the head, etc. They are, however, old and can be beneficial for older children to read. These tales and pictures take the child to far off lands and far off times to far off stories of the ancients.There are side bars that present varied information that lends understanding to the story, the people, the cultures. Some of the illustrations are scary or frightful and others striking in their beauty."Ali Baba approached the rock. 'Open, Sesame.' The door opened. He stepped inside. Sun lit the cave through a hole in theceiling. The floor glittered with bales of silk, fine carpets, strange foods. And montains of gold coins. Ali Baba took twobags of coins and put them on one of his donkeys. He covered them with wood. He said, 'Close, Sesame.' The door closed."I don't recommend this for all homes, but for some it will be a good addition. As I said, there are scary stories and events as well as wives who are unfaithful to their husbands. I would not read this to children younger than age 10.I received a complimentary copy to facilitate this review of my own opinions which are freely given.