56 pages • 1 hour read
Daniel NayeriA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
One Thousand and One Nights—or 1,001 Nights, as Daniel stylizes it—is a real collection of Middle Eastern folk tales as told by Scheherazade to the king to preserve her life. Daniel sees himself as Scheherazade, telling the stories of his family and his life to his reader, the king, who we later surmise to be Mrs. Miller, his teacher, though readers of Everything Sad is Untrue, also take on an important role as king in this text as well. Daniel wishes to impress readers, to immerse them in his stories so that they better understand him and where he came from. He wishes so much for readers to see him as human.
The stories are important throughout the novel. Daniel thinks about stories as a way of his remembering the past, but it becomes clear as the novel goes on that Daniel wishes to pull his readers in close to show his humanity and to erase the feeling of difference between himself and his readers. He loses confidence at different points, and yet, after seeing his father weaving stories of the dastan, the story land, for his class, his belief in stories as points of connection is renewed.
Books that Teach Empathy
View Collection
Brothers & Sisters
View Collection
Childhood & Youth
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Daughters & Sons
View Collection
Diverse Voices (High School)
View Collection
Diverse Voices (Middle Grade)
View Collection
Education
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Fathers
View Collection
Immigrants & Refugees
View Collection
Juvenile Literature
View Collection
Marriage
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Middle Eastern History
View Collection
Mothers
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Realistic Fiction (High School)
View Collection
Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade)
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection
The Past
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection