A favorite among friends

The Seven Chinese Brothers (or perhaps a predecessor that I am still trying to locate about five Chinese brothers) appears to have made a positive impression upon both my spouse and a close friend. Is this true for you, too? Margaret Mahy's retelling of this tall-tale casts the first Emperor of Qin (her text uses Ch'in Shih Huang) as the antagonist against seven brothers. The brothers, each of whom possesses a marvelous ability (such as keen eyesight, unbreakable iron bones, or immense tears that could flood an empire), come to the aid of conscripted laborers working to repair the Great Wall of China. Fearing a challenge to his power, the tyrannical emperor attempts to put the brothers, three of whom substitute sequentially for each other, to death. In the end, the brothers united in their affection for one another overcome tyranny. Jean and Mou-sien Tseng's excellent illustrations show a sensitive appreciation for drama, as they capture the brothers' deep emotional concerns as well as their courageous escapades. In addition, the Tsengs' reveal a more than passing knowledge of Chinese painting. The lovely spring landscape refers to Tao Qian's poem, "Peach Blossom Spring," which tells of a fisherman's chance encounter with a utopian village. The enraged Emperor of Qin calls to mind the famous painting of Thirteen Emperors in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts collection. While it's possible to criticize the book for implying that all Chinese men look alike or for omitting altogether  Chinese women, nevertheless the story succeeds in generating wonder and amazement and respect for the exercise of strength in combination with compassion, courage, and cooperation.

Margaret Mahy (author) and Jean and Mou-sien Tseng (illustrators)
The Seven Chinese Brothers
Scholastic, 1990

Lessons in children's books

I just finished Lenore Look's Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything, and Ruby taught me a thing a two. First, I need to refine my categories. Ruby Lu fits more comfortably in the category of "chapter book," which means that Ling and Ting properly belongs to "early reader."  Second, and more importantly, I learned a little bit about, well, everything. Over the course of about a year, third-grader Ruby must adjust to the immigration and integration of her cousin Flying Duck and their family into her household, while also overcoming her fears of school notes and swimming and apologizing (what's the fear of apologizing? losing face, bruising the ego, call it what you will, but there's fear there). Oh, and did I mention that Flying Duck is deaf, so we readers also get to learn about Chinese sign language and American sign language. There are lessons in here, dare I say, for everyone, and Look's light touch makes the learning a delight. Don't forget to read "Ruby's and Flying Duck's Amazing and Awesome Glossaries," too, loaded with PSAT words like aquaphobia, veterinary phenomena like parvovirus, Cantonese veggies like gailan, and the Rapa Nui word for hello to one or more people, Iorana koe and Iorana korua, respectively.

Lenore Look (author) and Anne Wilsdorf (illustrator)
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything
Atheneum Books, 2006

Fathers play, too

Some of you probably feel that fathers get left out of the children's book world. My husband is an avid reader to our son, and I think he keeps an on-going tally of fathers vs. mothers in fiction. The moms, as you might guess, significantly outnumber the dads. Well, here is a book for nurturing dads. Minfong Ho's Peek! A Thai Hide-and-Seek features a playful father asking noisy domestic and tropical creatures where he can find his plucky little daughter. The familiar childhood game is spiced up, shall we say, as we sound out the Thai conventions for animal sounds ("swip-swip-swip-swip" for the dragonfly, and "hoom praowl, hoom praowl for the elephant). Holly Meade's illustrations, which are a satisfying combination of luminous colors and crisp design, likewise transport us to a world where everything seems fresh and new, and a father's love for his daughter is at it should be.

Also, may I add, a lovely book for a gift!

Minfong Ho (author) and Holly Meade (illustrator)
Peek! A Thai Hide-and-Seek
Candlewick, 2004

cranky and cuddly

Who hasn't felt cranky and uninspired by dinner? Who hasn't pushed peas aside and poked dully at meat only to be sent to bed? We have each been the little girl of Hyewon Yum's Last Night, and we have each walked in defeat to our rooms and sought comfort in our stuffed animals. But after this little girl kisses her teddy bear good night, she is awakened to her dreams. The bear brings her into a nocturnal land of joyful dancing, hide-and-seek, and a warm campfire. A satisfying slumber restores her to well-being, and by morning she is ready to give her mother a deeply felt hug. Yum tells the story in images alone, and her richly textured linocuts capture all the range of human feelings and gestures. From the mother's frustrated and impatient stance, to the little girl's angry non-eating and dejected march up the stairs, to the teddy bear's wide-eyed anticipation, and finally, to the little girl's full-body euphoria and genuine love for her mother. The illustrations invite repeated viewing, and perceptive readers will appreciate the clever use of shadows to amplify the emotional content as well as to make visible the intersection of imaginary and everyday worlds.

I've heard from a reader that The Story about Ping is, odd as it sounds to me, a favorite gift to adoptive parents of Chinese girls. I think that there are many more appropriate alternatives, among them, Last Night.

Hyewon Yum
Last Night
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2008

sumo attitude

Hirotaka Nakagawa's Sumo Boy with the help of Yoshifumi Hasegawa's art brut illustration style delivers his moves with brash panache. The boy-saves-girl-from-mean-nasty-bully plot is about a lean (and conventional and gender stereotyped) as it gets, but the colorful, urban spectacles are a feast for the eyes. Hasegawa gives us in rough black outlines and bold raucous colors the pageantry of Japan's national sport, the cheek-by-jowl city highrises, and the interior of a crowded noodle shop. If you were not already a fan of Japanese pop culture, it is not too late to answer Sumo Boy's clarion call, "Dosukoi!" Note: check your issues about gender equality and desires for peaceful conflict resolution at the door.

Hirotaka Nakagawa (author) and Yoshifumi Hasegawa (illustrator)
Sumo Boy
Hyperion, 2006

The character of characters

The Chinese written language, which uses graphs instead of an alphabet, is a perennial source of fascination, but also frustration. Here are two books that minimize the frustration and invite English-speaking children (and their adult hangers-on) into that language.


Christoph Niemann's The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters reminds me of PBS' "Wordworld" program. Niemann selects Chinese characters with strong pictographic qualities and then merges the characters with the illustration. Thus, the two bold strokes of 人 overlap the image of the book's heroine, Lin, providing the reader with a visual association for the Chinese word for "person." Lin and her pet dragon take the reader through a world populated by similar character-image associations. Some work easily. For example, 木，林，森 represent the environment made of tree, woods, and forest in which Lin and the dragon play. Others are a stretch, like 長 as a hand touching the forehead in a gesture of seeing far into the distance to the Great Wall.


Niemann doesn't pretend to teach Chinese. (The book avoids pronunciation, for example.) Rather, his aim, as expressed in his "Dear Reader" letter, is to inspire us and our kids to take a class and learn Chinese. His story may at times seem constrained, but his clear, graphic illustrations do make the learning easy and fun.


If you enjoyed The Pet Dragon, and want another book to take you a bit further, try Peggy Goldstein's Lóng is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children. Again, there is the ubiquitous dragon promising excitement, power, and auspiciousness, but Goldstein's book does not unfold as a story. It is, instead, instructional, and in a mere 30 pages, she covers enormous historical, cultural, and linguistic ground. Here, we see in more detail the evolution of select characters from more pictorial, archaic forms to standard, modern ones. She discusses strokes and provides stroke order for writing characters ourselves. Then, she adds pronunciation (using the pinyin Romanization system). She loses no time and begins building on these basics showing us how characters may be combined to form new ones. Place an ear 耳 near a door 門, and you get 聞, which means "to listen." Or, juxtapose fire 火 with mountain 山 to form the compound word for volcano 火山. By the book's end, Goldstein has us writing (and translating) a sentence, and appreciating the auspicious, four-character phrases that typically adorn Chinese homes, restaurants, and commercial establishments. She concludes by bidding congratulations 恭喜 to her readers for their progress in learning Chinese. Goldstein should be congratulated, too, for her fine instruction.


Christoph Niemann
The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters
Green Willow Books, 2008

Peggy Goldstein

Lóng is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children

China Books & Periodicals, Inc., 1991

Ling and Ting

I was planning to wait awhile before reviewing a second (or third...) work by the same author, but twins Ling and Ting had me laughing out loud. So, for you fans of author-illustrator Grace Lin, here is another one.

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! takes us, I believe, into new territory. This is the first that I have seen of Chinese cultural content (possibly even ethnic content) in the chapter book-early reader format. Lin gives us six short stories about twin sisters whose ordinary lives, like those of all curious and playful kids, are rich with humorous incidents. The stories begin with "The Haircuts," which introduces us to how very similar the twins are, while also helping us to tell them apart. There is, I believe a subtext here, as Lin's insistent, "Not exactly the same!" functions as a retort to the stereotype that all Asians look the same. But the book's tone is spunky not bitter. The ensuing stories combine with a light touch things Chinese (like dumplings and chopsticks) with things not-Chinese (such as magic tricks and going to the library). These girls are clearly comfortable in their skins, partaking of Chinese traditions and American habits as they wish.

The illustration on the Table of Contents nicely captures the mixing of cultures: a table is set with six dinner plates, half of which are accompanied by flatware and the other half by chopsticks, also tea is on offer...with frosted cupcakes!

Grace Lin
Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
Little, Brown and Company, 2010