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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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Mosel,
Arlene.
TIKKI TIKKI TEMBO New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968 IL K-3, RL 3.7 ISBN 0805011668 |
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This
book is said to be based on a classic Chinese folk tale. Tikki tikki tembo-no
sa rembo-chari bari ruche-pip peri pembo is the proud name of a Chinese
family's firstborn son. This beautifully long name carries the meaning
of "the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world?". Trouble soon entails
when he falls into a well and his brother Chang must go for help. Little
Chang runs for his mother and is out of breath when trying to relay to
her that his brother had fallen into the well. Making it harder still is
the incredibly long name with many syllables that he is unable to pronounce
fast enough. Unfortunately it takes a long time before help arrives
to pull Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruche-pip peri pembo out
of the well and it takes a long time for him to recover. According to this
legend, Chinese families then decided to give their all of their children
shorter, easier names.
This is a wonderfully illustrated book with a delightfully entertaining name that rolls off ones tongue. However, it seems as though this story is not based on Chinese folklore as the book leads you to believe. I would highly recommend reading this book to children, yet, I would not pass along information about it being based on a Chinese origin as that information is most likely false. (Heather Majeske, teacher, heatherm17@verizon.net) |
| SUBJECTS: Folklore -- China. |
