Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!: A Palestinian Folktale

A woman yearns for a child, "even if it is nothing more than a cooking pot." But when her prayers to Allah are literally answered, she gets much more than she bargained for. The hyperactive Little Pot fills the house with the sound of "Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!" as she rolls around the floor (according to the author's note, the exclamation, which becomes the book's refrain, is based on the Arabic word for pot). Even worse, Little Pot has no moral compass; she rolls into town and steals honey from a merchant and jewels from the queen. But the king devises a "just reward" for the miscreant piece of cooking equipment: he orders Little Pot to be filled with goat dung. "I want my Maa-ma Maa-ma!... My mouth is full of nyaa-nyaa!" squeals Little Pot. Back at home, she is lovingly scrubbed by her mother and then grounded "until she was old enough to know the difference between right... and wrong." MacDonald's (Three-Minute Tales) fluid prose (adapted from a story in Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales by Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, according to an author's note) reflects the voice of an experienced storyteller. Her smooth pacing anchors the story, while newcomer Arzoumanian's highly stylized (but always accessible) acrylics energize it. The boldly graphic, vibrantly hued settings pay homage to Arabic visual traditions-particularly mosaic art-while the exotically costumed, appealing characters will draw readers into the action. Ages 3-8. 

Copyright 2006 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 2-A childless woman prays to Allah for progeny and is rewarded with a mischievous little cooking pot with human attributes. Soon the little pot tires of rattling around the house ("Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!") and insists on rolling off to market, where she tricks a rich man into filling her up with honey and rolls home again. The second time the pot leaves home she encounters a king who fills her with jewels. When Little Pot rolls home with this treasure, her mother realizes that she has been absconding with other people's property and tells her child that she will have to return everything. In the morning, the unrepentant pot escapes before her mother awakes, but she meets the rich man again, who takes her to the king. The men conspire to fill the pot with goat dung, which convinces her to stay home until she is old enough to have learned right from wrong. MacDonald's telling is filled with repetition to encourage children to join in. Arzoumanian's bright, acrylic illustrations of sloe-eyed humans and the sly-eyed red pot are set against backgrounds with suggestions of Arabic decorative arts, which reinforce the story nicely.

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Match this with the tale about the gingerbread man for a multicultural story hour about mischievous runaways.

The tale has an oral quality that makes it easy to read or tell with repetitive phrases and lively rhythms.