Fiction - African, Fiction - Miscellaneous People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - Occupations, Fiction - Family Life

My Father's Shop

Name: My Father's Shop
Author: Satomi Ichikawa
ISBN: 9781929132997

by Satomi Ichikawa

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Overview

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.

Synopsis

Despite his father's wishes, a Moroccan carpet seller's son doesn't want to learn foreign languages, but when trying to make a rooster crow in a crowded, tourist-filled market, he inadvertently learns how roosters crow in many countries.

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Editorials

Children's Literature

Morocco becomes the backdrop for this beautiful, touching tale about a boy and his father, the village rug seller. The lad, Mustafa, relates the tale in first person; this adds to the richness of the text. Mustafa's father has many brilliantly colored rugs in his shop for tourists to buy. When Mustafa finds a rug with a hole in the middle (one that can fit over his head), he asks his father for it. His father does not miss a learning opportunity and says Mustafa may have the rug if he learns some foreign languages, since they are important in the rug trade. Mustafa agrees and tries, but after only one lesson he runs out of the shop and seeks shelter in the city market. It is there that he discovers the value of knowing foreign languages and returns to the shop to learn more. Fortunately, tourists follow him and buy his father's rugs. Vibrant, colorful illustrations blend perfectly with the text. This rich book will accentuate classroom learning about different countries and will be read again and again for the worth of the story. 2006 (orig. 2004), Kane/Miller, Ages 4 to 6.
—Nancy Garhan Attebury

Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum

In Morocco, Mustafa's father sells beautiful carpets "in all the colors of the world" in My Father's Shop. But when helping out and learning foreign languages grows tiresome, young Mustafa decides to saunter through the market and show off his own recently acquired carpet, a damaged but still lovely thing. Through author/illustrator Satomi Ichikawa's words and pictures, young readers meet the mint seller Yacine, admire baskets and foods for sale and befriend a lively rooster. Through the bird and some friendly tourists, Mustafa learns how to crow in four languages (French, Spanish, English and Japanese) as well as his native Moroccan. And his father is especially happy when the boy returns to the shop with his new carpet-buying friends. Youngsters will love the humor and bustling market in this multicultural tale.

Kirkus Reviews

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-houuu" in Morocco, "Co-co-ri-co" in France, "Qui-qui-ri-qui" in Spain, "Cock-a-doodle-doo" in England and "Koke-ko-kooo" 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)