Story of the Mongolian Tent House

Based on an original tale by award-winning Mongolian author, Dashdondog Jamba, and retold by distinguished international author, Anne Pellowski, find out how the traditional Mongolian tent house (called a ger in Mongolian and a yurt in Turkish), was created in the ancient past by drawing on the example of nature, and how it later became a beloved symbol of friendship and harmony. With stunning illustrations of Mongolian culture by renowned artist, Beatriz Vidal, young readers can experience first-hand the wide-open steppes of this vast and wild land bordering on Russia to the north and China to the south.

Dashdondog Jamba (1941-2017) was a world-renowned Mongolian author who dedicated his life to writing, translating, and telling stories for children. A passionate promoter of children’s reading, he traveled with his nomadic library for over 24 years across Mongolia, covering a distance of more than 85,000 miles. Dashdondog wrote over 100 children’s books and translated more than 50 books by foreign writers. Among his award-winning titles are Tales on Horseback and Mongolian Folktales.

Anne Pellowski is a distinguished Polish-American storyteller and authority on international literature for children. From 1966-1981 she worked for the U.S. Committee to UNICEF as the founding director of the Information Center on Children’s Cultures. The recipient of several awards, including a National Storytelling Network Lifetime Achievement Award, she was a nominee for the prestigious 2010 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Anne’s writings include The World of Children’s Literature and The Storytelling Handbook. She lives in Winona, Wisconsin.

Beatriz Vidal is an award-winning Argentinean painter, illustrator, and teacher. Her work has appeared in well-known magazines such as The New York Times, Woman’s Day, and The New Yorker. Beatriz won the prestigious Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award for her title A Library for Juana, while her books Rainbow Crow and Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain were Reading Rainbow selections. Beatriz divides her time between Cόrdoba in Argentina and New York City in the USA.