Shadow Spinner, by Susan Fletcher
Summary: Angry over a betrayal by his beloved wife, the Sultan has
been taking revenge on all womankind by marrying young maidens and
then having them executed the next day. Brave Shahrazad postpones
her own execution by enthralling the Sultan with suspenseful stories,
tales which make up the well known collection of stories 1001 Arabian
Nights. In this adaptation of Shahrazad’s story, the legendary
heroine is aided by another brave young woman named Marjan who
struggles with her own history of betrayal.
Reading requirements:
 10/1-10/2: Frame Story/Prologue
 10/5-10/9: Chapters 1-5
 10/13-10/16: Chapters 6-10
 10/19-10/23: Chapters 11-15
 10/26-10/30: Chapters 16-20
 11/2-11/6: Chapters 21-23 + wrap-up
Background information
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of fairy tales, fables,
romances, farces, legends, and parables from ancient and medieval Persian,
Indian, Eqyptian, and Mesopotamian folklore and literature compiled in
Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. The stories are set in various
locations throughout the Eastern world, including Baghdad, Basrah, Cairo,
Damascus, China, Greece, India, North Africa, and Turkey.
The collection is organized by a “frame story” concerning a Persian sultan who
took revenge against his unfaithful wife by having her executed. Bitter towards
all women for her deceit, the Sultan marries a new bride each evening and has
her executed at dawn. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them,
cannot find any more maidens. Shahrazad (also spelled Scheherazade), the
vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly
agrees. On the night of their marriage, Shahrazad begins to tell the king a tale,
but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced
to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as
soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the
king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. So it
goes on for 1,001 nights.
Stories and characters from the Arabian Nights have become familiar to Western readers. In particular, you may have
heard about the Seven Voyages of Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Alladin’s Lamp. While the first
known French translation of the collection did not appear in Europe until 1704, there is evidence to suggest that the
stories influenced earlier writers such as Chaucer and Boccaccio. Today we view the stories primarily as children’s
literature, but many of the original stories and translations contain more adult themes and content.
Frame Story, Parallel Plot, and Theme
A ‘frame story’ is a literary technique whereby the main story or a collection of stories is presented as a story within a
story. The Princess Bride is presented with a frame story of a grandfather reading to his grandson. The narrative of
the academic bowl in The View from Saturday functions as a frame story for the first person narratives. In 1001
Arabian Nights, the tale of Shahrazad is a frame story for the rest of the stories.
Shadow Spinner is a more straightforward narrative, however your understanding of the novel will be stronger if you
have some familiarity with the original frame story of Shahrazad as this story serves as a parallel plot to Marjan’s tale. A
‘parallel plot’ is a second series of events and characters that appear alongside the main events and characters. As you
read Shadow Spinner, pay careful attention to the changing relationship between the Sultan and Shahrazad. The
lessons learned by both of those characters may give some insight into the theme the novel.
Vocabulary
As you read Shadow Spinner, be sure to write down words that are unfamiliar to you in your notebook. Many of these
words will be presented to you when you learn about Islam in history class, and some of them are more specific to this
novel. Nearly all can be understood in context, or through clues. For example:
“The muzzein climbed the long stairs to the top of the minaret and began calling the people to the afternoon
prayer.”
You may not know what muzzein or minaret mean, but context clues can help you out. First, both words serve as nouns in
the sentence, so you know that each of them is a person, place, thing or idea. The subject of the sentence, the muzzein,
climbs something and calls people to prayer. This suggests that the muzzein is a person (or a very skilled animal) who
serves a religious function. Context clues also tell you that a minaret is probably some kind of tower possibly with a
religious purpose. As you continue to read, you may get more information to confirm or disprove your guess to the
word’s meaning. All our novels this year will challenge you with unfamiliar vocabulary, and you’ll need to use context clues
to figure out meaning.