The older brother goes to the mother and says, "Chang fell in the well." Initially, the stream is so loud that she can't hear him, but then he yells at her and the mother says, "That troublesome boy." TTTSRBRPP has to go get "The Old Man with the Ladder" (kind of a sad thing to be known for), who lowers the ladder into the well, climbs in, and brings the boy back out. The mother says not to play by the well because they will fall in, and they don't listen to her and Chang falls in. Again, I can't say whether or not this is accurate, as I don't know enough about ancient China, or this mythical place that the author has conjured up which she claims is equivalent. Unless the people were concerned (and knowledgeable) about sanitation, in which case they were much more advanced than ancient Europeans. Which seems a strange place to put a well, since clearly there is water right next to it. On the bank of the stream, there's an old well. According to the internet, "Chang" means "constant" or "often", but depending on the intonation, can mean a whole lot of things, including "long" and "great" (as in "The Great Wall of China"), so kind of the opposite of "Little." Anyhow, every morning their mother washes clothes at a stream by her house. The elder brother's name is "Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo", which is not Chinese, but the book claims means "The most wonderful thing in the whole wide world," and the youngest is "Chang", which apparently is Chinese, but does not actually mean "Little" or "Nothing". The story is this: there are two brothers in "ancient China", where the first and oldest son traditionally has a very long name, and the second son has hardly any name at all because they don't really matter. Notwithstanding the possible racism, which I have to confess I was mostly unaware of due to my lack of education about other cultures (the illustrations made me think of Japan, but I didn't want to assume that China couldn't have similar art and clothing styles). Too bad, because I really liked the story.I certainly don't want to read this to my two sons. What is more, the illustrations are also inaccurate: the characters are supposed to be Chinese but some of them are wearing Japanese traditional clothes. Tikki Tikki Tembo is promoted as a "re-creation of an ancient Chinese folktale" but it kind of mocks the Chinese language and culture and depicts them as exotic others rather than accurately represents or celebrates them.įirst of all, contrary to what Arlene Mosel tells us, Chang doesn't really mean "little or nothing," and Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo doesn't really mean "the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world." In fact, Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo doesn't really mean anything and it kind of serves to mock the Chinese language, even though it actually sounds more Japanese than Chinese. HOWEVER, the plain truth is that Tikki Tikki Tembo is shamelessly racist, as pointed out by numerous other reviewers on Goodreads who clearly are more familiar with East Asian languages and cultures than I am. He pumped the water out of him and pushed the air into him, and pumped the water out of him and pushed the air into him, and soon Chang was just as good as ever! Haha!Īlso, for some reason it amused me to no end when the Old Man With the Ladder unceremoniously performed CPR on Tikki tikki tembo's younger brother Chang: I'm not a child anymore, but I just LOVE repeating the name of the main character: Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. Tikki Tikki Tembo is a lovely, amusing, engagingly repetitive, rhythmic story with detailed, oddly charming illustrations:
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