‘You should hear the remarkable story of my life, for I did not come to where I am now without suffering greatly to reach it. I worked hard in my youth and faced many perils. I have travelled the sea several times, each of my journeys stranger than the last. I shall tell you the strangest of these, the voyages which shaped my destiny.’ Sindbad the Sailor has been to sea seven times, and his voyages have always been dangerous. He has met giant men, snakes and birds – and even the Old Man of the Sea. There are some very strange sights to be seen as he sails the world's oceans. Is that a giant whale or a lovely island? Is that a mountain, or – heaven forbid – could it possibly be the egg of a Roc, a bird so huge that it can carry an elephant in its talons?
Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world’s greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.