Pit, Pet, Tu ("Chit, Chat, Chatter")

Haya Shenhav

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Haya Shenhav is a poet and author born in 1936 in Kefar Yehoshua, in the Jezreel Valley. Her first children’s book, Mitz Petel (“Raspberry Juice”), was published in 1970, and is a huge favorite among children to this day. Among her well-known and much loved works are Aliza Habarvaza Vehahaverim (“Aliza the Duck and Friends”), and Hippo-Tam, as well as the songs Gveret Im Salim (“A Lady with Groceries”), and Mi Shavar Et Hatzalahat (“Who Broke the Plate?”). In 1985, Haya Shenhav was awarded the Zeev Prize for Children and Youth’s Literature, and in 2004 she was the Bialik Literature Prize laureate. Haya Shenhav lives in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem.

Family Activities

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Pit, Pet, Tu is a long and adventure-filled story. You may want to read one adventure at a time, and then ask your child to pick an illustration, and tell you what the dwarves are doing now in their own words.

You could read it together several times, helping your child remember the sequence of events, and join you for the refrain: “Dwarves can do such things…”

You may enjoy looking at the illustration depicting the dwarves turning the mountain into a home. Do you recognize the food? What is your favorite? You may want to prepare one of the dishes the dwarves ate, or plan a back-to-front meal, where you eat dessert first.

One of the dwarves’ favorite pastimes is chatting. They enjoy sitting with one another, and remembering shared experiences. What do you like doing with your friends?

Do you know the tune to the song Meahorey Hahar 1, 2, 3 (“Behind the mountain, 1, 2, 3”)? You could sing it together.

Each time the dwarves transform the mountain into something else – a home, a boat, and even a car. You may also want to engage in a game of “pretend”, and turn familiar objects into other things using your imagination. You could pick a different object each time, and tell each other what it has turned into.

Would you like to play with dwarves? You may enjoy drawing little dwarves on toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, old socks, or rolled-up paper… You could make three dwarf puppets, and use them to tell the story.

Pit, Pet, Tu is the last PJ Library book you will be getting this year. Enjoy reading it, and also reread your favorite PJ Library books from previous months. Perhaps this time you could let your child read it to you… See you next year!