Aladdin (Goodnight, Sleeptight Storybook; Grandreams; 1992; ret. Grace De La Touche; illus. Pam Storey)
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| Aladdin Illustrated by Pam Storey Story re-told by Grace De La Touche © 1992 Grandreams Limited. Published by Grandreams Limited Jadwin House, 205/211 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2JU. Printed in Italy. ISBN 1-85830-012-6 |
This retelling of Aladdin by Grace De La Touche, illustrated by Pam Storey, was copyrighted to Grandreams in 1992. It was published as part of Grandreams' Goodnight, Sleeptight Storybook series, as part of a quartet alongside retellings of The Three Little Pigs, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White, likely in a boxed set, as all share the same ISBN.
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| Back cover of Aladdin |
For an overview of the Goodnight, Sleeptight Storybook collection, with links to my reviews of the other books in the series, see Goodnight, Sleeptight Storybook Series (Grandreams, 1990).
The front cover shows a boy wearing a traditional Chinese Tang suit. His long black hair is tied back in a queue, he is kneeling on a rocky floor, and he is waving his hands above a copper lantern, which has puffs of clouds coming out of it. A mouse leaps away in fright.
The inside of the front cover features an image of the same boy, this time wearing rags and a large conical Chinese straw hat, feeding chickens in the foreground of the illustration, which has a multi-storied pagoda-style building in the background. The image is framed by sticks of bamboo.
The title page features the lamp, with lines of smoke coming out of it to form its own wavy frame.
The story takes place over 20 pages, beginning on the back of the title page and ending on the inside of the back cover.
The story – retold by Grace De La Touche
As with the other stories in this set, the story begins "A long time ago and far away", in this case in China. Aladdin's Chinese setting is apparently due to a Middle Eastern folktale convention that mirrors the well-known European 'Once upon a time' – or this series' 'A long time ago and far away'. Although Aladdin's story is said to take place in China, it carries trademark motifs of the Middle East, including sultans, jinns, and mosques. For a nice overview explaining how the French translator of The Arabian Nights added the story of Aladdin to his translation (after hearing it from another source), see Aladdin: A History of the Tale (Pook Press).
In Grace De La Touche's retelling, Aladdin is a young boy living with his widowed mother in a small village. A man who claims to be his deceased father's brother comes to visit, saying that when the brothers were small they hid something in a cave in the nearby hillside. He asks Aladdin's help to retrieve it, giving him a precious ring and asking him to climb into a small hole in the ground. When he refuses to help Aladdin out until he passes him the lamp, then abandons him to the hole, Aladdin rubs the ring and meets the Genie of the ring, who grants small wishes that slowly improve his life.
One day his mother polishes the lamp and they meet the Genie of the lamp, who is more powerful and helps Aladdin woo and marry the daughter of the emperor. But his great deeds bring his wicked 'uncle' back, and when the princess swaps Aladdin's old lamp for a new one, the villain spirits her away. With the help of the Genie of the ring all is restored to rights.
De La Touche's retelling keeps many elements of the original tale that are often lost in more recent retellings (more heavily influenced by the Disney version) – Aladdin's mother, the setting in China, two genies. It's a somewhat complicated story, but De La Touche tells it clearly and straightforwardly. I enjoyed Aladdin's mother's reactions to events – her shock that her son would dare to court the princess, and her befuddled reaction to the magical acts of the genies: "I can't quite get used to the speed they do things."
The illustrations - Pam Storey
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| Image source: ebay |
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