Publisher Description

(Bilingual English-Dutch edition) On the day a boy is born, his parents are visited by a wise man who tells them, "This is a very, very important boy, and I'm going to give him something marvelous one day, but I will have to give him his name first. So please don't give him a name yet." So they named the boy Benaam, which means "nameless." The story tells how he seeks and eventually finds his own true name, and how he also gives away an old dream that he doesn't want - and gets a wonderful new dream. This is one of an illustrated series of Sufi teaching stories from the Middle East and Central Asia that were collected and adapted for children by Idries Shah, and that have captivated hearts and minds for more than a thousand years. The stories are designed to help children learn to examine their assumptions and to think for themselves. Among the many insights The Boy Without a Name can provoke is the idea that it takes patience and resolve to achieve one's goals in life. Mona Caron's beautiful watercolor illustrations embellish this unusual and captivating story, presenting the wonder of this hidden world to both children and adults.
(Tweetalige Engels-Nederlands editie) Op de dag dat een jongen wordt geboren, krijgen zijn ouders bezoek van een wijze man die zegt: "Dit is een heel, heel belangrijke jongen, en ik ga hem op een dag iets geweldigs geven, maar ik moet hem eerst zijn naam geven. Dus geef hem alsjeblieft nog geen naam." Dus noemen zijn ouders hem Benaam, wat Naamloos betekent. Het verhaal vertelt hoe de jongen zijn ware naam zoekt en uiteindelijk vindt - en nog veel meer. Dit boek maakt deel uit van een serie geïllustreerde onderwijsverhalen van Idries Shah, verhalen die al meer dan duizend jaar harten en geesten boeien. De verhalen zijn bedoeld om kinderen te leren hun vooronderstellingen te onderzoeken en zelf na te denken. Onder de vele inzichten in dit verhaal is het idee dat er geduld en vastberadenheid nodig is om je doelen in het leven te bereiken.

Author Biography

Idries Shah spent much of his life collecting and publishing Sufi classical narratives and teaching stories from oral and written sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. The tales he retold especially for children are published by Hoopoe Books in beautifully illustrated editions and have been widely commended - by Western educators and psychologists, the U.S. Library of Congress, National Public Radio and other media - for their unique ability to foster social-emotional development, thinking skills and perception in children and adults alike. Told for centuries, these stories express universal themes from the cultures that produced them, showing how much we have in common and can learn from each other. As noted by reviewers, such stories are more than just entertaining; familiarity with them provokes flexibility of thought, since each one contains levels of meaning that unfold in accordance with an individual's experience and understanding. Idries Shah heeft een groot deel van zijn leven besteed aan het verzamelen en publiceren van klassieke soefiverhalen en leerverhalen uit mondelinge en schriftelijke bronnen in het Midden-Oosten en Centraal-Azië. De verhalen die hij speciaal voor kinderen heeft naverteld, worden door Hoopoe Books uitgegeven in prachtig geïllustreerde edities en zijn alom geprezen - door westerse opvoeders en psychologen, de U.S. Library of Congress, National Public Radio en andere media - vanwege hun unieke vermogen om de sociaal-emotionele ontwikkeling, het denkvermogen en de perceptie van zowel kinderen als volwassenen te bevorderen. Deze verhalen, die al eeuwenlang worden verteld, brengen universele thema's tot uitdrukking uit de culturen die ze hebben voortgebracht en laten zien hoeveel we gemeen hebben en van elkaar kunnen leren. Zoals opgemerkt door recensenten zijn dergelijke verhalen meer dan alleen onderhoudend; vertrouwdheid met deze verhalen zet aan tot flexibel denken, omdat elk verhaal betekenisniveaus bevat die zich ontvouwen in overeenstemming met iemands ervaring en begrip.

Review

"... a satisfying bedtime story that will encourage pleasant dreams to drift into little ears." - Booklist (U.S.)
"... a young boy seeks and eventually finds his own name and is able to discard an old dream for a new and wonderful one. Highly recommended for personal, school and community library picturebook collections, The Boy Without a Name is an entertaining and thoughtful Sufi folktale which is wonderfully recounted by Idries Shah and marvellously illustrated with watercolor paintings by Mona Caron." - Midwest Book Review (U.S.)
"... one of three recent titles in the beautifully illustrated award-winning series of picture books by Idries Shah. ... Among the many insights that this story introduces to children is the idea that it takes patience and resolve to achieve one's goals in life." - Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature
"These teaching stories can be experienced on many levels. A child may simply enjoy hearing them; an adult may analyze them in a more sophisticated way. Both may eventually benefit from the lessons within." - "All Things Considered," National Public Radio (U.S.)
"They [teaching stories] suggest ways of looking at difficulties that can help children solve problems calmly while, at the same time, giving them fresh perspectives on these difficulties that help them develop their cognitive abilities" - psychologist Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., in his lecture "Teaching Stories and the Brain" given at the U.S. Library of Congress
"Through repeated readings, these stories provoke fresh insight and more flexible thought in children. Beautifully illustrated." - NEA Today: The Magazine of the National Education Association (U.S.)
"Shah's versatile and multilayered tales provoke fresh insight and more flexible thought in children." - Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature
"These stories ... are not moralistic fables or parables, which aim to indoctrinate, nor are they written only to amuse. Rather, they are carefully designed to show effective ways of defining and responding to common life experiences." - Denise Nessel, Ph.D., Senior Consultant with the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (U.S.), writing in Library Media Connection: The Professional Magazine for School Library Media Specialists (U.S.)
"These enchanting stories Shah has collected have a richness and depth not often encountered in children's literature, and their effect on minds young and old can be almost magical." - Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education (U.S.)
"In this tradition, the line between stories for children and those for adults is not as clear as it seems to be in Western cultures, and the lessons are important for all generations." - School Library Journal (U.S.)
"Our experiences show that, while reading Idries Shah's stories can help children with reading and writing, the stories can also help them transcend fixed patterns of emotion and behaviour which may be getting in the way of learning and emotional well-being too." - Ezra Hewing, Head of Education at the mental-health charity Suffolk Mind in Suffolk, U.K.; and Kashfi Khan, who teaches English as an additional language at Hounslow Town Primary School in London

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