![]() The cover further lists a Chinese character for each part of the boy’s “name,” but the pronunciation of the term is made up rather than derived from Chinese characters. The album cover shows a rotund Chinese boy wearing his hair in the traditional “pigtail” or queue for males in China before the Revolution of 1911. He explains that his mother introduced the story of “Tikki Tikki Tembo” to him in the 1940s and that she learned about it from a teacher in the late 1920s.ħ. Professor Ashliman includes an analysis of the story of “Tikki Tikki Tembo” on his website, “Folklore and Mythology, Electronic Texts,” at. Ashliman, Folk and Fairy Tales: A Handbook (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004): 181. He defines the term “chain tale” as a “formula story consisting of a sequence of episodes, each one repeating the previous episode and adding a new element.” See D.L. Professor Ashliman also refers to chain tales as cumulative tales. See Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon, “Small Happiness: Women of a Chinese Village” (“One Village in China” series) Long Bow Group, 1984: John O’Conner, The New York Times, August 25, 1987: Jo Blatti, Ann Waltner, Marilyn Young, Lary May and Michael Frisch, "One Village in China": A Review Symposium, The Oral History Review, Vol. Therefore, it would make no sense to give a second son a name with such a dismissive or pejorative meaning. In fact, the birth of a son is considered to be a “big happiness” ( 大喜dà xǐ ) for the family. The birth of sons, regardless of their place in the family hierarchy, is always welcome. I know of no Chinese character pronounced, “chang” or “zhang” (depending on the Romanization systems used to render Chinese characters into a Latin alphabet) that means “little” or “nothing.” The only character pronounced “chang” is cháng 常 it is usually translated as “common” or “ordinary” and is usually paired with the character “ping”: 平常 píngcháng. ![]() It is curious that the book refers to an English translation of Chang’s name this way. 61: 8 (May, 2008): 649-653 Recommended books for students, Resources, Educator Guide, The Field Museum Education Department, “Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor of Qianlong,” (March 12-September 2004): 2 Barbara Natale, “China, Soldiers, Sudoku, and Stories,” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, 2002: Alex Pafilis, “Emergent Literacy: Reading is a Family Affair,” Chicago Children’s Museum. Shelby Ann Wolf, “What’s in a Name? Labels and Literacy in Readers Theater,” The Reading Teacher 46: 7, Innovations in Literacy for a Diverse Society (Apr., 1993): 540-545: Joyce Shatzer, “Picture Book Power: Connecting Children’s Literature and Mathematics,” The Reading Teacher. The 2007 edition of the book, published by the Square Fish imprint of Macmillian publishing, lists the following praise for Tikki Tikki Tembo: Awards: American Library Association Notable Children's Books Boston Globe - Horn Book Award Recommendations: Association for Childhood Education International Booklist Bulletin-Center Child Books Elementary School Library Collection Horn Book Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review NCTE Publishers Weekly School Library Journal.Ĥ. It ranks #1 in children’s books about Asian fairy tales, folk tales, and myths #2 in children’s books about Asian geography and cultures, and #3 in children’s books about multicultural fairy tales, folk tales, and myths: (Accessed December 9, 2014). According to, the book has an overall Amazon book ranking of #1,445 in Books. ![]() It means, ‘the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world.’ After 40 years and over a million copies sold, Tikki Tikki Tembo remains one of the world’s most beloved picture books, perfect to share again and again.” See Tikki Tikki Tembo (New York: McMillan, Square Fish imprint, 2007)ģ. The back cover of the 2007 edition of the book states,” Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari beri ruchi-pip peri pembo is the name of a mother’s first and most honored son. This essay would not have been possible without her.Ģ. I offer special thanks to my daughter for telling me about the story. I first learned about “Tikki Tikki Tembo” in 2003 when my daughter, who was in second grade at the time, came home and announced that she had just heard the most wonderful Chinese story! I have to admit that I did not remember “Tikki Tikki Tembo” from my own childhood, but I decided to check it out from our local library for my Chinese-born daughter because of her rave reviews of the book. ![]()
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