Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale

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.)