Carol Crane's D Is for Dancing Dragon resides in the non-fiction section. For each entry, she gives a short rhyme describing the selection. Thus, "C is for Chopsticks/an ancient eating skill./Bamboo sticks called 'quick little fellows.'/How do you eat and not spill?" Beside the rhyme, a sidebar provides substantial commentary on sites, people, animals, events, ideas, and things. Her alphabet ranges widely and is remarkably inclusive, as it includes the Himalayas, Mongolians, the Silk Road, alongside the more common Great Wall. Other entries don't seem particularly Chinese (transportation and umbrellas, for example) but those, too, may be seen as a positive feature, defending against exoticizing China as the Other. Illustrations by Zong-Zhou Wang are colorful, but not especially memorable, as they serve a more documentary function.
By contrast, Ying Chang Compestine's D Is for Dragon Dance resides with other picture books in the fiction area. The book also has a more narrow scope, focusing specifically on things that may be linked to the Chinese New Year holiday. Compestine's text is pared down, and Yongsheng Xuan's illustrations more imaginative and more unified in palette and style. We know less about China at the end of this ABC, but we feel more immersed in a single, significant Chinese event.
Carol Crane (author) and Zong-Zhou Wang (illustrator)
D Is for Dancing Dragon: A Chinese Alphabet
Thomas Gale, 2006
D Is for Dragon Dance
Holiday House, 2006
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