Friends in Strange Garments by Anna Milo Upjohn
Friends in Strange Garments follows children from many parts of the world, each in a short story built around local dress, customs and a small crisis or adventure. In the Jordan Valley, Rahmeh rides her donkey Jeida with her brother Ismail's flock while her father Diab and brother Yussef take the camel Nib to Jerusalem. A storm sends her home with three weak lambs, and a hyena chases her until an English soldier shoots it. She strings Dead Sea apples into a necklace for brave Jeida. In Constantinople, Omar, who cannot write, learns letters from an old scribe in the court of the Pigeon Mosque. He then reads a stranger's address aloud, wins a half-day job with a merchant, and writes proudly to his brother in Chicago. At Olympia, five Greek boys wrestle in the ruins and befriend a foreign woman artist. When the bully Petro Negroponte steals her paint box, the boys chase him and recover the scattered paints, which keeps the honor of Olympia clear. On Crete, Nikola and Philippu compete over Christmas lanterns, a house against a ship. Philippu's ship burns, and Nikola offers to sing while Philippu plays the bagpipe. They split their earnings and buy a honey cake for both families. In Macedonia, Draga and her brother Dushan travel by ox-cart to the American school in Monastir. She makes friends with a Bulgarian girl, Boiana, and passes her examinations. In Albania, Rastem and his neighbor Marko are heirs to a blood feud. Rastem proposes a lifelong besa, or truce, and they swear it under an olive tree. A retelling follows of how George Kastriota, taken hostage by the Sultan, became Skanderbeg and freed Albania for twenty-five years. In Montenegro, Zorka takes her pet pigs Mirko and Marko to the Podgoritza market, and a kind merchant buys them. In Bulgaria, Todor goes to Sofia for treatment after a dog bite. He shakes hands with the King, spends a night locked in a church with a beggar, and sits for an artist. On Kossovo Day in Serbia, Mary, who was raised in Ohio, learns why her people honor a defeat and decides to be proud of the day. In Roumania, Stefano and Ileana wish in a fairy ring and then ride in the Queen's automobile. In a Czech village, Jaroslav leaves home to seek the Great Amber Road. A hat manufacturer offers to buy a cow in exchange for rabbit skins, and Jaroslav returns home. Masha and Treska, Czecho-Slovak girls, find a lost brook inside a cave. In Poland, the orphan Michael decides to take his siblings to a farm school run by the Friends. In Sezze, Elena shares her Easter ciambella with poor Giuseppa. In Brittany, Michel sees his uncle Ives return alive after the wreck of the Jeanot.
By Anna Milo Upjohn · First published 1927 · Genre: Children's literature, Short story collection, Coming-of-age fiction · 16 chapters · 37,202 words
First lines
Rahmeh's mother brought the smoking dish of mutton and cauliflower from the clay brazier where it had been cooking over a fire of thorns, and placed it in the middle of the rug, on a large round straw tray. Then she laid a little flat loaf of bread at each place and clapped her hands to call the family to their meal.
Yussef and his father came in quickly, but Rahmeh stayed outside to feed Nib, the camel, with the cauliflower leaves that she had saved for him.
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Genres
- Children's literature — Every story centers on child protagonists such as Rahmeh, Omar, Nikola, Zorka and Todor, written in simple, accessible prose with clear moral lessons for young readers.
- Short story collection — The text is organized as a sequence of self-contained episodes, each with its own characters, setting and arc, linked by the shared theme of children abroad.
- Coming-of-age fiction — Protagonists gain courage, responsibility, honesty and self-knowledge through trials such as the hyena chase, the paint box theft, the feud resolution and the locked church.
- Travel and cultural fiction — Vivid descriptions of landscapes, customs, dress, food and architecture in the Middle East, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bulgaria give the stories an ethnographic, travelogue quality.
Tags
children's stories · juvenile fiction · short stories · world cultures · cultural traditions · local dress · shepherding · Jordan Valley · Dead Sea · Ottoman Constantinople · Pigeon Mosque · literacy
What this Textopian page supports
Friends in Strange Garments is listed on Textopian as a short story by Anna Milo Upjohn, dated 1927 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Anna Milo Upjohn
- Date: 1927 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Children's literature, Short story collection, Coming-of-age fiction, Travel and cultural fiction, Adventure fiction
- Length: 37,202 words
- Structure: 16 chapters, 576 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Friends in Strange Garments by Anna Milo Upjohn
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Contents
- In the Wilderness
- The Pigeon Mosque
- The Road to Arcadia
- The Christmas Lanterns
- Draga's Entrance Examinations
- The Truce
- The Skanderbeg Jacket
- Mirko and Marko
- Todor's Best Clothes
- Kossovo Day
- The Fairy Ring
- Great Amber Road
- The Lost Brook
- Michael Makes up His Mind
- Elena's Ciambella
- An Everyday Story