Rating: 4 stars
Lorelei loves this book. She runs around reciting the older boy's name: Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. At 3, she realizes that it's pretty crazy to have a name that long. As a little lover of anything that rhymes, this book is one that will get read over and over again.
I'm glad for that--because the book represents both a culture so very different from her day to day and a culture that is from a region of the world I love. I love that the story is about a little family in China, and that the illustrations are vastly different from any other illustrations we've ever seen in any other book. The illustrations alone make me want to buy this book (I always wrestle with that: to buy or just check out again and again? My husband is glad I usually go with the latter). They are gorgeous and so very Asian in all the right ways. As a former volunteer in both Thailand (Peace Corps) and India (with Missionaries of Charity), I love that a piece of my slightly random past has found a way into my children's lives before the day we can travel there.
But the story isn't exactly a traditional children's story as we Americans define it. The story is about a mother and her two sons: her oldest and most favored is named (deep breath) Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo, meaning "honored and most favored son." Her second son is Chang, meaning "little or nothing."
Humph. Poor guy.
The well (check out the picture) is the center of the story: First, Chang falls in, and Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo runs and gets his mother, who gets the Old Man with the Ladder, who rescues Chang fairly quickly. Then, later, Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo (yes, I used the cut and paste option) falls into the well. Chang does his best to return the favor but his name is so long and he has to say it so many times that Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo remains in the well and under water much longer; his full recovery takes many weeks.
The Old Man with the Ladder performs CPR on both of them! (Ok, it's not called CPR: "He pumped the water out of him, and pumped the air into him. He pumped the water out of him, and pumped the air into him.") Some kids might get a little spooked if they understand exactly what is going on--the brothers almost drown. For any child afraid of water, this might not be the best book for them.
We'll check the book out again. I'm not afraid to explain to Lorelei and Ben exactly what is happening in the book, and exactly why a different culture would value first sons so much more than their second sons (or any daughters). I'm aiming to broaden their horizon through books, even if that means a slightly chilly tale underneath a layer of beautiful illustrations. We are going to follow through on this illustrator, Blair Lent, to see what other Asian-inspired images he's created...stay tuned!
This book was one of my absolute favorites growing up. I adored the illustrations and don't recall finding the story spooky. I was fascinated by how different the lives of the boys in the story were from my own.
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