Arabian Nights: Three Tales

An abridged version of the ever-familiar ``Aladdin'' may attract readers to Deborah Nourse Lattimore's Arabian Nights: Three Tales, but the other two entries, ``The Queen of the Serpents'' and ``Ubar, The Lost City of Brass,'' give a scintillating suggestion of the richness and complexity of Scheherazade's 1001 tales. Lushly colored pastels with hints of traditional Persian paintings pick out key scenes (HarperCollins/Cotler, $16.95, 64p, all ages ISBN 0-06-024585-9 Sept.).