![tiki tiki tembo tiki tiki tembo](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/60/65/6c/60656cab686f49a28e7abc0793c20c09--tiki-tiki-design-seeds.jpg)
But you might also want to buy an oxygen tank to go with it. Originally published in 1968, Arlene Mosel's award winning retelling of an old Chinese folktale. It's a cute story that deserves to be read out loud, no matter how exhausting it gets, because it's fun and catchy and one that I remember fondly from my own childhood for the same reasons that my daughter loves it now. 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'. And again and again and again until she could rattle off "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo" without hesitation herself. The book tells the story of a Chinese boy with a long name. Mosel also wrote The Funny Little Woman, an Honor Book for the Hans Christian Andersen. In 1997, The New York Times named it one of the best 50 children's books of the previous 50 years.
![tiki tiki tembo tiki tiki tembo](https://i.thenile.io/r1000/9781417784172.jpg)
I hesitated to give this book five stars for a number of reasons, most notably the unwarranted but niggling feeling that perhaps it's not the most politically correct book (although there's nothing remotely offensive about a tale from ancient China) and the fact that by the end of the book if you're reading this aloud to your child you get so freaking tired of saying that whole name that you hope that your child doesn't want you to read it again.Īnd the reason I gave it five stars anyway is because my four-year-old did want me to read it again. Tikki Tikki Tembo is a 1968 picture book written by Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent. Arlene Mosel (1921-1996)'s debut children's book, Tikki Tikki Tembo, was an American Library Association Notable Book and won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.