Reading Notes: Arabian Nights Part A

For this week's reading notes I want to write my favorite portions of the stories, so that I can look back to see which one I want to incorporate in my story! I was really curious to hear what story Scheherazade would tell her sister, but the surprise was the story was an ending to the first tale while introducing the next. When the man returned to be killed by the genius, I thought the plot twist was interesting that other men kept showing up to ask what happened and stayed with him for protection against the genius. I thought justice was served when the woman was also turned into a cow and the son was brought back to human form and married. My favorite part of the fourth story was when the husband and wife were thrown to sea, but you are told she is actually a fairy and is able to save both of them. I thought The Fisherman was interesting because the genius wants to kill the man who freed him but if he would have been set free a century before then he would be rewarded. At this point in the unit, the story is being told by a character in a story that is being told by Scheherazade. It is kind of confusing, but extremely creative! I thought it was clever of the wife to trick the parrot into thinking there was a thunder storm by showing bright light and pouring water over it's head.  I was confused when the ogress did not eat the man in the story because he was so afraid of her. Using the characters from The Fisherman to end the story of the Greek King was very clever. I was intrigued when the Sultan wanted the fisherman to show him where the lake was because I thought he would just continue to purchase the fish from him. I enjoyed the young king's sad story being connected to the fish from another story in the unit. I enjoyed reading the first half of this unit because each story fed off of the previous one.

Image Information: Fish swimming in a pond, Web Source: Pxhere
 Bibliography: Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, Web Source: Arabian Nights