Tanina Sticks Her Nose into Other People’s Plates

In this early collection Zarchi describes a series of strange adventures and occurrences which Tanina and her cat experience. In one of them Tanina decides to dine with Belly Button in a restaurant. But what will they order? The menu is not efficient, because reading is one thing and eating another. So Tanina sends Belly Button to peek at the plates of the other diners and to dip his tail in their food. Before he can report to Tanina on the different tastes, however, a riot breaks out in the restaurant, in the course of which Tanina organizes all the diners into a pressure group that demands to taste the dishes before deciding what to order.

In a different adventure, Tanina finds herself in serious danger because a witch with one tooth in the middle of her mouth wants to eat her. Unfortunately for Tanina, Belly Button is away at summer camp at the time, but since whatever Tanina says comes true, Belly Button arrives at the moment she says his name. Tanina orders him to swallow the witch, who is indeed swallowed up and is no more.

Belly Button does not even notice that he has swallowed her. Tanina is no loser. She loves to fight and to win, and she despises ordinary people who are slaves to lives of routine and habit, like taking the bus to work in the morning, sitting in a cafe, and shopping in the supermarket. Tanina loves a life full of drama. She is an original type, independent and proud, and no one will tell her what to do.