Ibrahim MuhawiRezensionen

"There was once a woman who had no children. She prayed to Allah: 'I would love a child, even if it is nothing more than a cooking pot!' Willa! She had a child! And it was a little pot!"

But the pot is mischievous, and as soon as she's allowed to go to market by herself, she gets into trouble by stealing. In the end, she learns her lesson when she gets filled with goat poop. "Little Pot, I hope you've learned your lesson. You cannot take things that do not belong to you!"

A little on the long side, so good for PreK-2nd grade.

This book was about a little pot that wanted to go out alone. She finds herself in some trouble when she ends up stealing. She ends up learning a lessons between what is right and wrong.

Acrylic on paper. Grades pre-K and up. This Palestinian folktale would be useful in an exploration of traditional literature from many cultures. Students could look for similarities between folktales of different cultures. Example of a numbskull/noodlehead tale.

Everyone in this is kind of weirdly self-righteous and venial and there is a lot of scolding of the precocious little pot protagonist, but it still works.

A Palestinian folktale about a woman who teaches a little pot about right and wrong

This was an interesting tale. I have not really read children's tales from Palestine before, so I enjoyed learning more about this culture. This story could be used as an SEL lesson.

This folk tale reminded me of Aesop's Fables, a simple story with a huge life lesson. I loved reading about the misadventures of our main character, and the warnings of its mother. I had never heard this story before and loved the different elements of Palestinian culture represented. I plan to share this story with my nieces and think it is a good opportunity to introduce more multicultural stories into their lives. Media: Acrylic

A little pot discovers an easy way to steal, but soon finds out that stealing does not get her what she wants.

The genre of this book is folktale. The story begins with a woman who wants a child, and prays to Allah, who gives her a little pot as a child. The little pot gets into all sorts of trouble, taking things from people that don't belong to her, and taking them home to her mother. In the end, she is filled with muck as a punishment.

This was a fun story I had never heard before. While the message of morality is a familiar one. the new scenario freshens it up. The illustrations go nicely with the feel of the story. I think children will find it entertaining to listen to the pots song it sings as it runs home to its mom each day. It would be a good book for the classroom, especially for the purpose of exposing students to folklore from different regions other than Europe.

I love finding global children's literature, and this is a fun story from Palestine that I think many young readers can relate to. The major themes of the book are a mother's love, and learning about life through experiences. The pot steals jewels from a market because she wants those jewels, and learns afterwards that it is wrong to steal, a lesson my of my students can benefit from.

A collection of forty-three Palestinian folktales, collected in the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, and divided into five thematic groups devoted to: Individuals, Family, Society, Environment, and Universe. Some of these groups are further sub-divided, into categories such as Children and Parents (Individuals) or Husbands and Wives (Family). Such categorization allows Muhawi and Kanaana to provide afterwords for each section, in which the specific cultural themes of that group of tales is discussed. Speak Bird, Speak Again also includes a useful cultural overview in the introduction, as well as a section devoted to folkloric analysis of each tale, in which themes, motifs and variants are given.

This was a fascinating book - a very effective and scholarly ethnographic folktale collection. From a purely cerebral perspective, I found it quite enjoyable, and felt that I learned something about (traditional) Palestinian culture. Unfortunately, I did not always enjoy the stories in their own right, which surprised me, as folklore is usually one of my favorite genres. But the frequency of violence directed against women in these stories - the beating of wives, in particular - and the casual acceptance of same, was quite disturbing, all the more so when one considers that these tales are regularly told to young children.

I appreciated the authors' points about the agency of women (ie: that they do not simply accept their fate passively), but I was somewhat skeptical of some of the ideas put forward about women's "power." I'm not sorry I read this collection, as I found it very informative, but I can't say it was especially enjoyable.

Genre: Legend
Genre Critique: This book is a good example of a legend because it is a story that has been passed down in the Palestinian culture without knowledge of its origin. It's a story that is popular and used to teach about not taking what belongs to others.
Review/Critique: I thought the book was a cute little story, and could be used to teach children about not taking things that don't belong to them.
Media: Acrylics on paper

This book tells a Palestinian Folktale about a a cooking pot that comes to life. The pot is actually the child of a women with no children; nevertheless, the pot comes to life. The pot makes a lot of noise and fights to finally leave the house. Every day the pot goes to the market and always comes back filled with things to bring back to her mother. The pot learns that it was stealing though and ends up learning its lesson.

Age: Primary
Genre: Folktale
Media: Pastels
Review: This folktale uses the repetition of a little pot going out and stealing from people in the community to lead to the moral lesson that stealing and dishonesty is not okay. The little pot learns her lesson and a sense of justice is restored. This story has been passed down by word of mouth through multiple generations in Palestine.
Character: The little pot is a round character because we know how she came to exist and about her family and life. She is also dynamic because she learns a lesson that dishonesty is not okay and she should be honest.
Use: lesson on honesty/dishonesty, learning about folktales, creative writing prompt

Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!" is a Palestinian folktale that tells the story of a woman who doesn't have any kids, but desperately wants one. So, she prays to God to have a child, even if it is only a pot. And miraculously God grants her a pot for a child. The lady loves her pot and protects it as much as she can, but the little pot is quite mischievous and naughty: she wants to explore the world and take care of her mom. So she leaves the house every day and tricks people into filling her up with different things. When they close the pot, they can no longer open it and get their belongings out and that is how the pot ends up bringing her mom different things like honey and gold. At the end of the story the little pot learns her lesson not to take what is not hers.
I really liked the story because of its moral and wonderful illustrations.The motif of the story is portrayed through the magical object - the pot. The pot represents a naughty and mischievous child that gets in a lot of trouble. I think that using this folktale the teachers and the parents can teach the kids, ages 4-7, some valuable lessons about the good, and the evil (stealing, misbehaving, not listening to thier parents, etc.) The repetition: Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! can be used to get kids involved in reading it together which will make it more fun.

Over the course of several years the authors collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and a ppreciated and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The authors have also provided extensive footnotes, an international typology, and a thorough analytic guide to parallel tales in the larger Arab tradition in folk narrative.

Subject Area: Language Arts
Genre: Folktale
Critique/Summary:
The author retells a Palestinian folktale. Because the author tells a story that has plausible and implausible events, such as a woman having a pot for a daughter, this tale can be categorized as a folktale. The author shows the values of the Palestinian culture by telling how the pot is punished when she "steals." True to folktale criteria, the author establishes setting, characters, and plot right away. The plot is simple (almost predictable.) There is fast-paced action (pot's adventures to market) and repetition (taking things that people put in her.)
Style: The author effectively uses personification in this story. The inanimate object of the pot is given human-like characteristics. This book shows personification taken to the extreme, in that the pot can move on its own and talk.
Age: primary

MacDonald, M. R. (2006). Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian folktale. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Children.

A woman wanted very badly to have a child. She prayed to Allah to give her a child, even if it was nothing more than a cooking pot. Magically, the woman receives a child that is a little pot. However, this loveable pot is mischievous. She loves to go to the market place, take items, and bring them back for her momma. Finally, the little pot learns her lesson when the King fills the pot with a “reward,” which is muck! After the pot comes home smelly and dirty, she learns her lesson about stealing.

This traditional folktale involves the motif of magical objects, because the woman gets her wish by receiving a magic pot. It also has the elements of a folktale, because it has a quick flow of action and repetition. Children will enjoy the repeating phrase, “tunjur, tunjur, tunjur,” which is the Arabic sound a cooking pot makes when it rolls around.

This is a humorous story with bright, full-colored illustrations. Children will love the ending when the little pot receives its “reward.”

A somewhat strange yet hauntingly appealing book. I was completely unfamiliar with Darwish before reading this book -- and I wasn't all that informed on Palestine, either. Suffice to say, I didn't always understand what Darwish was conveying. Still, there is a unique quality to his writing, stories within stories that are symbolized with just a few words. I suspect that I could reread this book several times throughout my life, always finding something new that resonates within me.

Beautifully illustrated, this book recounts a Palestinian folktale not commonly known in the west. A good lesson in right and wrong which is also sympathetic and approachable.

A tale about a little red pot who thought she could steal things from rich people, and take them back to her Mother who she thought would be proud of her. Unfortunately, she did not know the difference between right and wrong. Her wise mother let her venture to the market place wanting the little red pot to learn her lesson. The little red pot learned that it does not pay to steal and waitied a long time before venturing out again until she knew the difference between right and wrong.

This is a story about a little pot that gets into trouble. A very good lesson.

This folktale is about a mother who is wise and kind and her pot child who is naïve. The setting is a village, a home of the pot, the market place, and the palace. The problem in the story is that the pot thinks it is old enough to go out alone to wonder and brings home things that do not belong to it. It gets into trouble and learns from his mother that stealing is the wrong thing to do.

As a Galelalian folktale this book portrays cultural values, and also instills in the lives of the readers the importance of knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is cleverly told, with magical illustrations, and it is all done with a moral in mind.