Summary: An Arabic counting book where Jouha takes his donkeys to market. He counts 10 donkey's when he leaves. Along the way he keeps losing one donkey, counting only 9. But he forgets to count the donkey he is riding. When he gets off the donkey to count, all of the sudden the lost donkey has come back. Comical story and he never figures out what he is doing wrong.

Criteria- Critique of Genre: Folklore- International story told many times with different themes. The counting is in both english and Arab to display the Arabic counting. A realistic tale in Arabia.

Age: primary, intermediate

Media: paintings ( )

I really liked this book for a younger classroom! This is a counting book that counts donkeys. It counts, but also has a story line of an old Arabic Counting Tale. Children would really benefit from a counting book that can be used for dual learning. They are learning about counting and another country. My favorite part about this book was the Arabic writing at the bottom of the pages. It showed both words and numbers written in English and Arabic. I think a class would be really interested in something like this! ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book because while I loved the illustrations and the patterned style of the language I had a difficult time reading the names of each donkey. The point of view was told by first person which was appropriate for the book. The big idea of this story was that he kept losing a donkey until he figured out that if he rides a donkey he will loose a donkey so its better to walk along side the donkeys. ( )

Jouha is attempting to take his ten donkeys to the market. But there is one problem, he keeps losing and finding his donkey, but then loses it again! The story, along the way of the mayhem, is teaching us some arabic, specifically, how to count. There is humor in this processes, but also the repetition helps reinforce the knowledge of the reader beinging to learn a new language. ( )

Summary: Jouha, a well known and loved Middle Eastern character, starts out taking 10 donkeys to market. He loses one, then finds it, then loses it, then finds it, over and over again on his way to market. At last, he decides that it is better to walk than to lose a donkey.

Critique: This is a great example of traditional literature because Jouha is a traditional Middle Eastern "wise fool" whose character shows up in a variety of cultures. This rendition of the story is from Saudi Arabia and was told to the author by her aunt. Style: The author uses rhythm to help move the story along. One way that she does this is to count in Arabic each time that Jouha thinks he has lost a donkey. This gives the students a chance to learn arabic numbers and helps give the story rhythm.

Media: Acrylic