Sindbad: From the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

Ludmila Zeman’s retelling of one story from The Thousand and One
Nights allows youngsters to journey imaginatively to a tropical paradise
where nothing is as it first appears and to share in the drama and
dangers of a shipwrecked sailor. She introduces her tale with the
well-known narrative frame of a cruel king’s habit of taking a new
bride every night and beheading her every morning. The clever Shahrazad
ends this wickedness with her thousand and one tales, each left
unfinished at dawn. On each successive night, she completes one tale and
begins another.

Sindbad’s tale features a tropical island that is the back of a
whale, a mountain that is a giant bird’s egg, and a valley filled with
poisonous snakes and diamonds. Rich in color and design, Zeman’s
illustrations are as exotic as the tale. Each full-page scene is
bordered with details indebted to oriental carpets, as are parts of the
main scene, such as the giant Roc’s wings and some of the lush
vegetation.

Zeman acknowledges the Persian influences on her art. She was inspired
by Persian miniatures, oriental carpets, illustrated manuscripts, and
Islamic paintings in museums around the world. Like her original model,
Zeman has elevated storytelling to a fine art. Highly recommended.