Ladybird Tuesday - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is a book in Series 740 - Legends. My very first Ladybird Tuesday book was also in this series - A First Book of Aesop's Fables. It's not a large series, and it only contains 7 books. 

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one in a collection of stories called The Thousand and One Nights, based on ancient Persian, Arabian and Indian tales. They are linked by the story of Sheherazade, who managed to avert her execution by telling one of the stories to her sister each night in the presence of the Sultan, who couldn't bear to miss the end of a story and so kept delaying her execution until in the end she was forgiven. 

The story has been re-written in simple text for younger readers. It follows Ali Baba, who never had much money to support his wife and son until he spots some thieves hiding their gold in a cave and learns the magic words ("Open Sesame") to open the cave and help himself. There follows a series of twists and turns as he and his family manage to foil the robbers.

Although most of the book follows the usual Ladybird style with text on the left and illustration on the right, some of the pages have both text and picture, and alternate pages have an illustration which is just red, black and white which jars a bit with the lovely colourful illustrations elsewhere. It's an exciting story though, and it's been well written to cater to young readers.

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood