Aladdin by Ruth Hobart

A long time ago, a magician wanted a very special magic lamp. But the lamp was in a cave in China. The magician couldn’t go into the cave to get the lamp. Only a boy could get the magic lamp from the cave.

The magician went to China. There, in a market, he saw a poor boy. The boy had a basket of bread.

‘What’s your name, boy?’ asked the magician. ‘Aladdin, sir,’ said the boy. ‘Please, buy my bread.’

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by Antoine Galland

Ali Baba was a woodcutter. He was from Persia, in the Middle East.

One day he was at work in the woods when he saw forty men on forty black horses. They stopped near a huge rock. They had forty big, heavy, brown sacks on their backs. Ali Baba watched the men as they got off their horses.