Emma Keith

Dear diary, Image from page 170 of "Stories from the Arabian nights." Source: Flickr .  A tragic day for the kingdom.  Our dearest sultana has betrayed the sultan, so quietly and painfully. Father tells me the sultan is mad with grief, pacing the halls of the palace and tearing at his hair. None of this can excuse the sultan's final actions toward his wife today or his forcing father to play a part. I am conflicted — while I am disappointed in the sultana's actions, I mourn deeply for her loss at the sultan's hand. I only hope we as a kingdom can move past this and the sultan can return to h is former mind.  ___________________________________________________ Dear diary,  Dark times across the city. The sultan has taken a turn for the worse — that may in fact be an understatement. Father weeps every night when he arrives home for the tasks the sultan sets him to. Each morning the sultan slaughters his bride from the evening before and each day f...

This week I chose to read from the Arabian Nights unit and hear some of  Scheherazade's stories. I loved all the clever story-within-a-stories in this unit (especially the fisherman's story as it plunges into three levels of storytelling)! Here were a few of my favorites: Scheherazade I actually really loved the first story in this unit.  Scheherazade is a woman of courage, conviction, and level-headedness. I think telling the story from her perspective would make her bravery, but also her entire thought process, a lot clearer, and convey the weight of her situation. She could also convey the appearance of the palace and the nature of the sultan from her observations. The old man and his son, the calf. Courtesy of  Laura Gibbs. Source: Un-Textbook . The Hind While I really enjoyed this story, the story-within-a- story format makes it kind of a tricky candidate for retelling. The setting and characters work well because of the story's growing depth,...