The Giant and the Little Voices

For grown-ups

A gentle retelling from the Thousand and One Nights: a giant shuts the gate, and your child helps a whole village open it together.

What your child practises

• Disagreeing kindly, and listening to the people who know a place
• Helping a frightened friend one small step at a time
• Using a plank on a firm block to lift something heavy
• Speaking up together when one person decides for everyone

Listen for

Your child explaining why many small voices together could do what one could not.

Your part

• Use an Ask when your child wants to talk; skip it when the story is carrying them along
• In the tale the giant harms sailors; here he harms no one. The village and its bell are new
• Sailors of the Indian Ocean used stars to help find their direction; the night sky here is a picture, not a chart

Take it off the screen

Make a lever: a ruler over a pencil, a small book on one end. Move the pencil nearer the book. Is it easier?

Where the facts come from

• Project Gutenberg: Andrew Lang, The Arabian Nights Entertainments
• Nagoya City Science Museum: Lever
• Royal Museums Greenwich: The Principles of Arab Navigation

Sinbad's Shipmate

Book 3 in this series

• Book 1: The Island That Sneezed
• Book 2: The Valley of Shining Stones
• Book 3: The Giant and the Little Voices (this book)

This sea chart can carry your child's name into Sinbad's adventures. Two red lines cross it already: one to an island shaped like a whale, one to an island with a white egg. At the chart's edge, a tiny door is drawn beside a door taller than a tree. Their Pet blows on the wind rose. Whoosh! Salt wind lifts the chart.

The edge of the table becomes a ship's rail. This is Basra, long, long ago. Sinbad, a merchant sailor from Baghdad, waves from his ship. "Shipmate! Just in time. We sail for the far islands." Bashir rolls the last water barrel aboard and counts them all. Then he counts them again.

Everyone puts a hand on the mast, and your child's name does too. "Wind, take us," says the crew together, "and bring us home." The big sail fills, and the ship runs out into the open sea.

That night the sky is full of stars, more than your child's name has ever seen. Sinbad points to one bright star. "I know that star," he says. "It helps me find our way." Yusuf is carving a little wooden camel. Its legs are very, very short. "Camels don't have legs that short," says Bashir. "This one does," says Yusuf.

In the night a storm blows, and by morning it is over. The sail is torn, and the water barrels have rolled and spilled. "Everyone safe? Good," says Sinbad. "Now we need fresh water." Ahead lies a green island. Among its palm trees stand doors as tall as the trees.

Every house has two doors: one for people, and one for someone very, very tall. On the sand lies a sandal as long as their landing boat. Its strap is higher than your child's name's head! "Someone has lost a shoe," says Sinbad. "Someone big."

Then, far out in the bay, a hill stands up. No, not a hill. A giant! He wades through the sea with a net as wide as a sail. Seabirds ride on his hat. Each slow step sends a wave rolling up the beach. Whoosh... whoosh. "In all my voyages," whispers Sinbad, "I have never seen anyone so tall."

By the shore stands a courtyard with high walls and a well of cool, fresh water. Its gate, as tall as the palm trees, stands wide open. The crew fills every barrel and rests in the shade. Bashir counts the barrels. "All full. I counted twice."