Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel

 

Title: Tikki Tikki Tembo
Genre: Traditional Literature

Author: Arlene Mosel

Illustrator: Blair Lent

Age group: 2nd-4th

Summary

This is a retelling of an old Chinese story.  This story follows two brothers and in the Chinese culture the first and honorable child is given a great long name and the other children who come after are given simple and short names.  So of two brothers the oldest ones name is Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi pip Peri Pembo and the youngest one's name is Chang.  The boys are one day playing by a stone well against the advice of their mother and the youngest brother Chang falls in.  The older brother runs to the river to tell his mother and the first time she cannot hear him over the roaring waters, so the second time Tikki Tikki Tembo yells and his mother hears.  His mother sends him after the old man on the hill with the ladder so he can fish out Chang.  The old man cannot hear Tikki Tikki Tembo so again he repeats himself.  The old man hears him and they go fish Chang out of the well.  On a new day after a wonderful dragon festival the brothers are once again playing at the well.  This time Tikki Tikki Tembo is the one who falls in.  So his younger brother goes to the river to tell his mother.  His mother again cannot hear him but at this point he's repeated the long name so many times he's exhausted and can barely speak it.  He takes a huge breath to regather himself and finally gets his point across to his mom.  His mom tells him to go get the old man on the hill with the ladder.  The process repeats itself of little Chang growing exhausted from trying to get out thelong name.  But on the fourth time the old man finally understand so the run as fast as they can back to the well.  The fish out Tikki Tikki Tembo but he's been in the well so long because of his long name so they have to give him CPR.  Even then the book ends by saying the moon went in circles many times before Tikki Tikki Tembo was ever the same.  And the book finally ends by saying this is why the Chinese now name all their children short names instead of longwinded ones.

Evaluation

This story is very repetitive however in committing to the repetition and not shortening the main characters name the author is able to effectively get the message across.  The reason why Tikki Tikki Tembo was in the well for so long was because of that long great and terrible name.  Personally I would not use this book for my classroom but others may find it valuable for  the sake of a traditional literature unit from the Chinese perspective.