The Island That Sneezed

For grown-ups

A gentle retelling from the Thousand and One Nights: your child sails with Sinbad and notices the island is a sleeping whale.

What your child practises

• Noticing small things, and saying so even when you are the youngest
• Comparing clues before deciding what is going on
• How whales breathe air at the surface

Listen for

Your child pointing out the clue that told them the island was not an island.

Your part

• Use an Ask when your child wants to talk; skip it when the story is carrying them along
• The grassy whale-island is a story wonder; the misty blow is real whale breath, and the sneeze is a joke
• The ship is imagined: its sewn planks are inspired by a real ninth-century wreck

Take it off the screen

Watch birds or a pet from a distance for two minutes. What do you notice that you did not see at first?

Where the facts come from

• Project Gutenberg: Andrew Lang, The Arabian Nights Entertainments
• American Museum of Natural History: What are whales?
• US National Park Service: Whale watching
• Singapore National Heritage Board: A ninth-century shipwreck

Sinbad's Shipmate

Book 1 in this series

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

On the table lies an old sea chart. A harbour, a coast, and a lot of empty sea. In the harbour sits a tiny ship with its sail rolled up. Their Pet leans close and blows on the wind rose in the corner. Whoosh! The tiny sail fills. Salt wind lifts the corners of the chart.

The edge of the table is a ship's rail. The air smells of salt and spice. This is the harbour of Basra, a long, long time ago. A man in a loose white turban hurries down the plank. "At last!" he says. "I am Sinbad, from Baghdad. And I need a shipmate."

"Look," says Sinbad. "No nails. Our planks are sewn together with strong cord." Yusuf the carpenter taps a stitch. "Tight as a drum." Bashir the cook is counting bowls. Then he counts them again. "So nobody misses a meal," he says.

Sinbad gives your child's name a logbook with blank pages, and a stick of charcoal. "Draw what amazes you," he says. "And tell me what I miss." Then he asks a question. "What is the greatest treasure a traveller can bring home?" Nobody answers. Not yet.

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. The ship slides down the wide river and out to the open sea.

At dawn, Sinbad finds your child's name on deck. "Every shipmate has a job," he says. "Which will you do first?"