hiatus

As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted to ABCCBA in a few weeks. I have reached the limits of my local public libraries, and I'm now figuring out how to extend my reach. I hope to resume regular posting soon. Meanwhile, thanks for your patience, and happy summer!

Delicious

Margaret and Raymond Chang (retelling)

David Johnson (illustrations)

The Beggar's Magic: A Chinese Tale

Simon and Schuster, 1997

When a Daoist beggar comes to the small village, it is only a matter of time before parsimonious Farmer Wu is served his just desserts. First to welcome the beggar, the young and the infirm are early witnesses to his unselfish magic. Fu Nan, especially, warms to the beggar's ways. At the August Moon Festival, when stingy Farmer Wu refuses to give the beggar a pear from the cartful he is selling, Fu Nan chooses to spend his kite-money to buy one for him. In consequence, the beggar treats the villagers to a magical, moralizing spectacle grown from a single pear seed. I found Margaret and Raymond Chang's retelling of a strange tale collected by Pu Songling (1640-1715) captivating. Their light touch is matched in David Johnson's illustrations.

Daoist immortal intervenes

Molly Bang
The Paper Crane
Greenwillow, 1987

When a new highway redirects local traffic patterns, a local restaurant suffers. Spending more and more of their time cleaning the dining room, the owner and his son are glad to serve a free meal to an old stranger. In return, the stranger gives them a gift, a paper crane. The crane's magic draws customers, and the restaurant flourishes once again. The stranger returns for a last dance, then, like a Daoist immortal, rides the crane into the night. Molly Bang's paper collages add to the story's magic realism.

Images of the mind

Ed Young
Beyond the Great Mountains:
A Visual Poem about China
Chronicle Books, 2005

Beyond the Great Mountains is a meditative, absorbing book. Like a Chinese landscape painting, Ed Young's aesthetic is sparing in words and images. We, too, must bring our discipline and restraint to reading this book. Only that way, will we appreciate its richness. Young brings his design sensibility to bear on a series of cascading paper collages that draw upon Chinese characters. "East" (dōng 東) is pictured as a great tree silhouetted against a tangerine sun. "Boulder" (shí 石) is a great waterfall plunging from the edge of a cliff. The collage papers are alternately richly dyed, fibrous, mottled, printed, and, if you excuse the pun, absorbing.

Author's website: http://edyoungart.com/

Write Chinese

Peggy Goldstein

Hu Is a Tiger: 

An Introduction to Chinese Writing

Scholastic, 1996

Peggy Goldstein is author of the similar book, Lóng Is a Dragon, which teaches the basics of Chinese language and writing to novices. Hu Is a Tiger uses the same engaging strategies for picturing, remembering, and reproducing characters and portions of character that may be combined to form new words. In this book, Goldstein includes numbers, zodiac animals, auspicious words, and a carefully selected range of vocabulary for forming sentences. She concludes with an important idea: 人人明白仁 rénrén míngbái rén. Everyone understands benevolence.

Pint-sized underdog exceeds all expectations, and gets the girl

Helen Smith (adaptation)
Junko Morimoto (illustrations)
The Inch Boy
Puffin, 1984

After an old couple ask the Buddha for a child, they discover a one-inch-long baby crying outside their home. They name him Issonboshi for his diminutive figure, but his ambitions are super-sized. Seeking to become a samurai to the Lord Sanjo, Issonboshi proves his mettle when facing down the red demon threatening Sanjo's daughter, Makiko. Predictable in plot and stereotype, The Inch Boy is nevertheless charming.

Why roosters crow at sunrise and chase after worms

Ed Young with Hilary Beckett

The Rooster's Horns: 

A Chinese puppet play to make and perform

Collins, 1978

This charming fable stars Dragon, Worm, and Rooster. In the beginning, Dragon admires Rooster's golden horns and wishes to have ones like them. Worm intercedes as the conniving advisor to Dragon, suggesting that Dragon ask to "borrow" them. Rooster is the affable, trusting soul. Through flattery and false promises, Rooster is persuaded lend his horns for a day. But come sunrise, when Dragon is due to return the horns, and every sunrise thereafter, Rooster cries in vain. As for the sneaky worm, he has little chance what Rooster spots him.

  Ed Young's lyrical, fan-shaped illustrations accompany the story, which is followed by instructions and patterns for creating a shadow puppet play. It seems like a fine project for a grade school class or a rainy day.