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Summary
Summary
There is a rug in his fathers shop that Mustafa loves. (It has a hole in it, so you can put it over your head and still see out.) No one else wants the rug, though lots of tourists visit the shop. His father always welcomes them"Bienvenue"and offers them tea"O cha wa ikaga desu ka?" Mustafas father would like him to know some words in other languages too, and he tells Mustafa that he may have the rug if he agrees to learn. But after the first lesson, Mustafa is so bored he runs out of the shop (with the carpet on his head). Ending up at the market, he finds a very different way of learning foreign languages....and of getting tourists to visit his fathers shop.
Reviews (3)
Horn Book Review
When given a flawed carpet, Mustafa drapes it over his head and drums up business for his merchant father by attracting first a similarly colored rooster, then numerous tourists who crow in their own languages: ""Co-co-ri-co!"" ""Qui-qui-ri-qui!"" ""Cock-a-doodle-doo!"" The multicultural message is light and the humor contagious. Bright scenes of a crowded Moroccan marketplace amplify the story. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Mustafa's dad tries to teach him foreign language phrases that will help Mustafa learn to sell the beautiful patterned rugs piled everywhere in his father's shop in a Moroccan marketplace. Mustafa is bored and finally steals out to spend the day cloaked in a pretty little carpet with a hole in it. He meets up with a rooster who shares the colors in the carpet, and they attract a whole crowd of tourists. Soon everyone is telling each other how roosters make their sounds in each country: "Kho-kho-hou-hoûûû" in Morocco, "Co-co-ri-co" in France, "Qui-qui-ri-qui" in Spain, "Cock-a-doodle-doo" in England and "Kok-ko-k" in Japan. Mustafa is proud of his ability to learn foreign languages and to bring new customers to his father's shop. The vibrant watercolors are full of action and fun as the artist captures the many expressions on the faces of vendors and tourists. A joyous story that brings people from different cultures together. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
K-Gr. 2. A small Morrocan boy named Mustafa falls in love with a rug in his father's shop and gets to keep it because it has a hole. Delirious with possession, he runs through the marketplace with his brightly colored acquisition over his head and attracts the attention of a wandering rooster, who thinks it's found a compatriot. Kho kho hou houuu, cries the rooster. The many tourists in the market exclaim over the rooster and the boy, each citing how roosters sound in their own countries: qui-qui-ri-qui in Spain; cock-a-doodle-doo in England; koke-ko-kooo in Japan. Mustafa runs back to his father's shop to report proudly that he has learned to speak rooster in five languages--and brings the tourist trade along with him. Besides a gentle cultural lesson in how animals sound in different countries, Ichikawa's glowing pictures, with their radiant colors and slightly exaggerated forms, present an engaging image of a Moroccan marketplace and of a boy who can find a dozen ways of playing with a rug with a small hole. --GraceAnne DeCandido Copyright 2006 Booklist
