Anyone else read this book to your child? Which translation? How old was your child? Thoughts?
I recently read an abridged version of Arabian Nights to my 6 and 3 year old. It was a kids version, and although slightly violent, I was O.K. My kids loved it, especially the 6 year old.
The 6 year old asked for me to read a longer version of the book. So I found a much longer version and am reading it. It is 2010 translation by Malcolm Lyons. As a book, I believe it to be an excellent translation. However, as a book to read to a child…I have some reservations. Night 1 has me saying the word black slave, lover, fornication and beheaded. The kids version thankfully smoothed over most of that, however, it also lacked the wonderful imagery and vocabulary. My daughter doesn’t seem to be concerned about these words or ideas, but I am. She keeps asking for me to read the book to her and I am not sure.
On the positive side, it is something she will let me read to her. Since she has learned to read chapter books herself, she has not wished me to read to her. If I start to read to her, she will just pick up another book and ignore me. This was a book she was finally interested in ME reading. I miss reading to her, I missed the bonding and downtime. On the negative side, this translation might be ‘too adult’ to read to her???
We felt Arabian Nights were inappropriate for our little ones, so we have not done any. We have loads of other books, so we were not suffering for reading material, otherwise I probably would have done like you – chose the adapted versions.
But ultimately it is up to you of course, if you feel alright about it, just do it and add lots of explanation, if needed. But if you do not feel right about it, perhaps you can look for some other things to read together?
Great topic! It is one of my favourite books of all times and one I definitely want my children to have read by the time they are 10 or so (not the full original version but a children’s version). At what age it is appropriate depends on the version entirely, there are so many different ones. I have read Ali Baba to my 3 year old already though I agree maybe pouring fried oil over people may not be age appropriate. I will definitely try to find versions of some of the stories that are okay for 6 year olds, but that’s not really EL.
It is the same with the Aesop Fables and many folk tales in general. While they are great, have lots of lessons and morals, many of them would not work for reading with young children ( for that very reason – graphic language, people are being eaten, cooked in boiling oil and so forth :nowink: ), but then there are beautiful adaptations, which preserve the story and morals, but omit those details, which are not critical to the story line.