Part of Macmillan's Ready-To-Read series, Abu Ali contains three Turkish folktales, retold in simple language - suitable for beginning readers - by Dorothy O. Van Woerkom. In Abu Ali Counts His Donkeys, our eponymous hero cannot understand - until his friend Musa comes along - why he sometimes seems to have eight donkeys, and sometimes nine. Abu Ali and his friends - Hamid, Musa and Nouri - each claim that they are the strongest, in Abu Ali Fools His Friends, resulting in a competition that will teach everyone a lesson. Finally, in Abu Ali Fools Himself, Abu Ali's attempt to hoard food, at his friend Musa's dinner, backfires when the coat in which he stored the extra goodies is reclaimed by its true owner.

These amusing stories are sure to please young folklore lovers, keeping them entertained while tickling their funny bone. Abu Ali's perplexity, as he gets on and off his donkey to count, is sure to win a chuckle, as is his claim that his coat is hungry. Harold Berson's droll illustrations, done in both color and black and white, accentuate the humor. I particularly liked the page on which the donkeys are lined up vertically, along the outside margin of the paper! Although no source material is given here, Van Woerkom does mention, in the sequel collection, The Friends of Abu Ali: Three More Tales of the Middle East, that her stories are based on the tales of the famed wise man, Nasr-ed-Din Hodja, describing them as Turkish. I assume the same can be said of the selections contained in her earlier anthology. ( )

Fun book - the kids giggled through it. ( )