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The Story of the Husband and the Parrot

From The Arabian Nights Entertainments, collected by Andrew Lang

This tale comes from The Arabian Nights (also called One Thousand and One Nights), a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled over many centuries and translated into English in the nineteenth century. Andrew Lang published this version in his collection of tales from the Nights. The story is structured as a frame tale—a story within a story—where each narrator tells a story to persuade or warn another character. This layered structure reflects the literary tradition of the Arabian Nights, where storytelling itself becomes a tool of survival and wisdom. The story examines trust, deception, and the tragic consequences of acting on suspicion without seeking the full truth. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised.

Band
Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14
Length
long · about 1080 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures
Source
The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Andrew Lang
First published
see the About page in the reader
Regions
Canada · United States

Included formats

  • · Web reader and PDF
  • · EPUB for e-readers
  • · Home-print sheet
  • · Folded booklet
  • · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
  • · Worksheet
  • · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
  • · Read-aloud script
  • · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Lesson at a glance

Reading
about 10 minutes at this band
Pause questions
1
Words to Know
10
Quick Check
10 questions, with the answer key
Let’s Talk
2 questions for afterwards
Worksheet
questions, an activity and a drawing prompt

About 40 minutes with one story, all of it.

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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The same story

The Story of the Husband and the Parrot at other bands