Rating: 
Summary: This is an excelent boook!!!
Review: Death: That is what happened every night at the palace untill Shahrazad met the sultan. Before she came along the sultan would marry a woman everyday and then kill her that night. When the sultan met Shahrazad she would always start a really good story at night but she wouldn't finish it untill the next so he let her live. This went on for about a year untill she ran out of stories.When marjan a young crippled girl came to the palace to sell jewels with her aunt, she started to tell children stories.Then Shahrazad's maid heard her telling these stories and decided that she could be some help. The main characters in this story are Shahrazad, Marjan and the sultan has a pretty big part. There are two main settings in this book. One is the palace where Shahrazad, Marjan, the sultan and all there family live,and the village of Bazaar where all the food and goods are sold. ****If you like fun exciting books then Shadow Spinner is an excellent book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Shadow Spinner
Review: The main character of this book is Marjan, a thirteen-year-old girl living in the Middle East. The entire land is under a spell of terror because of the rampages of the Sultan. His first wife was unfaithful to him, and the enraged king had her beheaded. Every night from then on, he married a new girl and killed her in the morning. (This background story is also the basic plot of "The Arabian Nights.") This ended when he married the lady Shahrazad who, on their wedding night, told him an interesting story and broke it off right in the middle. He let her live another night to continue her story, and this had been going on for nine hundred and eighty-nine nights. Shahrazad was desperate for new stories. Marjan is an orphaned girl living with an elderly Jewish couple, whom she calls Uncle Eli and Auntie Chava. She is actually a servant to them, but they treat her more like a niece or granddaughter. Uncle Eli used to be very rich, but he lost his fortune, and the family lives in poverty. Even so, Marjan is perfectly happy, despite the fact that she is crippled. Her foot is stuck turning downwards and twisted in, and she has to walk on the side of her big toe. Marjan's favorite pastime is telling and hearing stories. One day Auntie Chava has to go to the palace of the Sultan. To help pay the taxes, she is going to sell some of her own jewelry and treasures to the women who live in the Sultan's harem. Marjan is allowed to come with her. They enter the harem, and while Auntie Chava is busy selling her wares to the harem women, Marjan entertains some of the concubines' children with fairy tales. Midway through her story, Marjan discovers that a girl slightly older than her, a girl of noble birth, is listening to the story too. The girl, whose name is Dunyazad, asks Marjan to come with her. She leads Marjan through the twisting passageways of the harem to the chamber of her sister. Marjan receives a shock upon discovering that Dunyazad's sister is none other than Queen Shahrazad. Shahrazad has just given birth to a child and is trying to find a new story which she has not told the Sultan. It has been nine hundred and eighty-nine nights since she first started telling him stories on their wedding night. Marjan manages to tell Shahrazad half of a story which the Queen has not yet told the Sultan, and Shahrazad is delighted and rewards Marjan. Marjan goes home with Auntie Chava as usual. The next day, one of the harem eunuchs shows up at Uncle Eli's home and tells Eli and Chava that he has been ordered to take Marjan to the harem with him. Bidding farewell to her only family in the world, Marjan leaves for the harem, wondering what will happen to her next. This book is a wonderful historical read that will transport the reader back to Persia in the Middle Ages and portray accurately the fear-filled lives of the women shut away behind the harem doors.
Rating:
Summary: Shadow Spinner
Review: Susan Fletcher wrote the book Shadow Spinner. It is about a girl named Marjan, in the Middle East who admires Shahrazad. Shahrazad is a wife to the Sultan in a harem who told stories to the Sultan to keep him from killing more wives than he already had. Dunyazad hears Marjan tell a story to some children in the harem and brings Marjan to her sister Shahrazad. Shahrazad is looking for a new story to tell, because the Sultan doesn't like to hear a story twice. Shahrazad never heard the story before and tells the Sultan it. The Sultan was told the story when he was a child and it was his favorite. The Sultan remembers another half to the story that Marjan never heard. The Sultan wants to hear the rest of the story so Dunyazad and Marjan have to track down the rest of the story.
It's a book of adventure. The author paints the scenes very well with words. I enjoyed the book very much and hope others will too. A sixth grade student
Rating:
Summary: Shadow Spinner
Review: I have read an exciting book called Shadow Spinner, written by Susan Fletcher. It takes place in Aribia, in a sultan's harem. Shadow Spinner is about a sultan whose wife runs off with another man. The sultan gets so angry with her that he kills all the women in the harem and swears he will never be decived like this again. So, every day he takes a new bride and kills the old ones. One night, he marries a beautiful women named, Sharazad. Sharazad loves to tell stories. So after they marry, she decides to tell him a story before he kills her. Sharazad is so clever that she makes the story last for two nights. The sultan can't kill her because the story was so interesting. The sultan likes her story so much, he decides that she will tell him a story every night(not telling the same one) or she will be killed. This lasts for aboutone year and Sharazad is running out of stories. My favorite character is Marjan, whose mother made her a cripple so the sultan wouldn't marry her(before Sharazad). And Dundyazad, Sharazad's sister,is another favorite. Of course, there is always more than one bad guy, and in this book it is the Khatun, the fat mother of the sultan who hates Sharazad and Marjan. If you like books that are exciting this is for you.
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding book!
Review: Shadow Spinner is a great book for all age groups. It is the story of a crippled girl named Marjan and what becomes of her life. One day Marjan and her auntie Chava go to the harem to sell treasures to the slave women who live there. During her visit she tells some young children a story. The Sultan's sister in law, Dunyazad, over hears Marjan's story and takes her to her sister, Shahrazad. Dunyazad believes Marjan can help her sister learn new tales. Ever since the Sultan's first wife betrayed him, he has never been able to trust women. When ever the Sultan gets remarried he kills his new wife that morning, in fear that she will betray him, too. Shahrazad, his most recent wife has been telling him stories every night and in return he lets her live another day. Marjan ends up living in the harem and helping Shahrazad learn new tales. When Marjan can't remember a tale, she is smuggled out of the harem. She then finds an old storyteller that helps her learn the rest of the tale. She then must sneak back into the harem to tell Shahrazad before the Sultan murders her. Every day becomes a struggle to escape the harem and return safely with a story. Will Marjan be able to continue escapes and how many more nights can Shahrazad survive? The story is very intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: Shadow Spinner a Jade Room play
Review: Once upon a time there was a sultant who married a beatiful wife who betrade him so he had her killed. So after this he married and killed a new wife every night, untill Sharazad. She kept herself alive by telling a story to the sultant everynight, for nine-hundred and eighty-nine nights! One day Marjan a thirteen-year old girl who has a crippled foot, took a trip to the harem, with her aunt Auntie Chava, to sell trinkets. Marjan ends up telling a story to some of the harem girls. Dunyazad Sharazad's sister listens in on the story Marjan is telling. So Dunyazad brings Marjan to Sharazad. Sharazad is despertly looking for a story to tell o the sultant that night. Marjan tells Sharazad a story that she never heard before. The story is about Julnar a beatiful mermaid. So Sharazad tells the story to the sultant. The sultant then wants to here about Julnars son. So Marjan is set out on an adventure to find the story. She thinks that she heard the story long ago when she was little in the bazaar from a blind storyteller. Marjan has succeded on her quest. She tells the story to Sharazad and Sharazad tells the sultant and Sharazad lives. Once again Marjan needs to get more of the story, but this time Dunyazad comes with Marjan. Remember this everytime Marjan leaves the harem she has to escape without anybody nowing, becaues no woman our aloud to leave the harem ever! All through out the story marjan keeps meeting new friends and enemies. For example: the Khatun (the sultants eveil mother), Ayaz (a poor boy), Zaynab (a crazy bird lady), Soraya (the sultants next victem), Uncle Eli (Auntie Chavas husband and Marjans Uncle) and final Mitra (a girl in the harem).
Rating:
Summary: A delightful tale
Review: Shadow Spinner is a wonderfully written novel that puts a delightful new twist on a familiar, elegant story. The story of a sultan who after one wife betrays him, marries a new wife everyday, and by the next morning the wife is dead. Until finally, Shahrazad, the daughter of one of the sultans advisors, decides to take her turn with the sultan to try to stop all of the killings. She tells the sultan stories each night, but stops for the night at all of the exciting parts so she continues to live. As the number of days draws nearer to 1000, she is begining to run out of stories. A girl from the city named Marjan, comes to the harem and ends up staying to help the sultans wife find new and exciting tales to tell the sultan. They are doing fine with this until the sultan recalls one certain story that the sultan requests that no one has ever heard before, but Marjan has an idea how might know.
A story that people of all ages should be able to read and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Shady Says--!
Review: 'Twas a good book. I've read it over and over and have given it to my friend who has fallen in love with it. I love the style, the eloquence, and the person which confines to us her narrative of an expression of deep thoughts and dark bitterness-the type of story that often makes a mark in the classics. Yes, the classic story (1000 tales) has its undying charm but this story is the story behind the stories. This book gave me insight, it gave me window to see charisma and writing as one.
Rating: 
Summary: how dares she?!
Review: How dares this author destroy the wonderful character of Shahrazad? I understand that she wants to present a shy, physically imperfect girl (Marjan) as a person who realises her strength and helps Shahrazad inside the dangerous and cruel world of the harem. I understand that she wants to take the characters of the mythical story and make them round, flesh them up -and, very naively, make them soun "real". But did she have to depict Shaharzad as terrified and on the brink of a nervous breakdown, constantly fearing for her life? And, even worse, how do we believe, then, that even though she is afraid of being murdered by the sultan -as hundreds of girls had been before her- she, in fact, loves him? Uh??? The author wants the characters to sound "real" and she makes Shahrazad love a dangerous psycho-killer who has killed hundreds of young girls and who can also kill her any day??? And, this is really cheap!, the person responsible for this, the one who is really guilty of the sultan's behaviour is ... his mother!!! who manipulates him like a puppet. And yet Shahrazad deeply loves him. Well, I really didn't reach the end of this awful, stupid miscreation. The characters of THE ARABIAN NIGHTS cannot be taken as real people (it would be really difficult to explain their behaviour in real-life terms, especially the sultan's), they are myths or symbols. Shahrazad represents the strength and seduction that story-telling (in any form) has and will always have for us, humans. Her story-telling sessions teach, cure and, ultimately make human the sultan. Read to your children the original tales (which were such a children's classic in the 19th century) and don't destroy for them the character of Shahrazad, the power, fascination and wisdom that they will find in stroy-telling.
Rating:
Summary: not only a tale for children
Review: I loved this book. I am in highschool, and my reading level is past college, but this book was a great story. I read it in a day, and then I read it over again. I even used the beginning page as a monologue for my drama class. I applaud this author, and I give this book five stars. I highly recommend this book for adults and children everywhere. I guaruntee that all those who read it will love it.
|
