Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 2. In this lively Palestinian tale, a woman wishes for a child to love, even if it is nothing more than a cooking pot. Voila! Her wish comes true, and red Little Pot appears. The two spend cozy days indoors, but restless Little Pot begs to explore the wider world. Reluctantly, the mother lets her pot outdoors, and its adventures include meetings with a merchant and even the royal family. Little Pot manages to roll away from each encounter with valuable stolen goods tucked inside her lid, but after her petty thefts are discovered, she receives a stinky comeuppance that is sure to please read-aloud crowds. Folklorist MacDonald's briskly paced text brims with repetitive phrases that evoke the sounds and rhythm of Little Pot's tumbling, rolling movement, and Arzoumanian's richly hued, stylized acrylics, bordered with Islamic motifs, add subtle cultural detail and help leaven the heavy messages about right and wrong behavior. Match this with the tale about the gingerbread man for a multicultural story hour about mischievous runaways. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
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.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Collected by Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana. In response to her wish for a child, an old woman receives a cooking pot. The pot goes about stealing things until she is caught and filled with goat dung. The heavy-lidded characters are cartoonish, but the story is reads aloud well and is followed by a well-documented note that explains its origin. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
After a childless woman prays for a child, a cooking pot (tunjara in Arabic, leading to the sound of a rolling pot, "Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur!") appears and the woman is grateful. The pot begs to go to the market and the mother reluctantly lets her go, after making her promise to behave--but the little pot is young and greedy. The pot steals honey from a rich couple and then jewels from the king and queen. Finally the little pot is punished: She is filled with goat manure! The heavy-lidded men and women in the bright acrylic paintings have a comic-book feel, but the patterned clothes, textiles, architectures and borders are more authentic. Relatively few Palestinian tales have been made available in picture-book form in this country. MacDonald is a well-known storyteller, and the original story was collected during a live telling. The tale has an oral quality that makes it easy to read or tell with repetitive phrases and lively rhythms. (author's note) (Picture book/folktale. 6-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
