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/

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. 

How the Darumas earned their eyes

Winifred E. Wise (author)
Beverly Komoda (illustrator)
The Revolt of the Darumas
Parents' Magazine, 1970

  Kojima and his sisters have three roly-polys, or Darumas, which they call Big D. Middle D. and Little D. Following tradition, they draw in only one eye on each Daruma, promising that if the roly-polys grant their wishes, then they will draw in the other eye. The obedient children go out to play, and that is when the malicious Tengu with the big nose goes to work making mischief. When the children return, an uneasy scene awaits. Who made a hole in the paper door? Why is the Tengu mask on the floor? Where have the roly-polys disappeared to? But as the Darumas go to work making magic, disappointment gives way to happiness and generosity among the good, while the wicked only brings harm to himself. Winifried E. Wise's story, published in 1970, is well worth revisiting. The humorous charm of roly-poly beings is timeless. Those of you have seen them croaking and hopping about the queen's castle in Murasaki's Spirited Away know this. And, like Spirited Away, The Revolt of the Darumas has moments of transcendency, as when the roly-polys spend the night in the pond turning and drifting, sometimes able to see the fish through their one eye, other times seeing the stars. I would like to see a publisher step forward to update the content and prose, giving for example, names to the sisters. A new title, too, could highlight the resolution in the Darumas' action.
  I would also like to say a big thank you to a dear friend who has sent me this and several other children's books for this blog.
  Finally, can anyone speak to the accuracy of the practice of making wishes and drawing in Darumas' eyes?

Looking for less sun, more shine

Eric A. Kimmel (retelling)

Yongsheng Xuan (illustrator)

Ten Suns: A Chinese Legend

Holiday House, 1998

Indeed, the story of Hou Yi, the archer who shot down nine of ten suns to save the earth from being scorched, is, well, legendary in Chinese culture. And so, retelling such a story has its challenges. Eric A. Kimmel begins with a fantastic and compelling image of a wondrous palace atop a giant mulberry tree. But I found the following pages less interesting. The suns' personification as sons made it difficult to accept their being shot by arrows. And, it was little comfort that the shots didn't kill but merely transformed them into crows. Yongsheng Xuan's illustrations are an odd mixture of Soviet-influenced socialist realism (the image of the bare-chested Hu Yi is so hard-edged as to warrant literally the descriptive term "cut") and a Chinese vernacular taste for technicolor. His style gave Ten Suns for me a kind of artificiality. Further, without an image of a real person suffering from the ten-sun drought, I found the narrative's dramatic urgency false. 

It's a wonderful new year

Ying Chang Compestine (author)
Tungwai Chau (illustrator)
The Runaway Rice Cake
Simon and Schuster, 2001

The Chang family—Poppa, Momma, and three boys Ming, Cong, and Da—gather to celebrate the new year and share their impoverished meal of a single rice cake, or níangāo. But that dastardly cake (he must be related to the gingerbread man) jumps up and runs away. After giving chase through the town, the rice cake eventually consents to being captured and eaten not by the Chang family but by an old, hungry lady. The family sees that her need is greater than their own, and they return home rather dejectedly. But, surprise! Their compassion is repaid by neighbors who bring a little of this and a little of that to share. And when a magic bowl erupts with a feast, why, even Jimmy Stewart could have a place at the table. Ying Chang Compestine's story is fun and jubilant, and only a spoilsport (moi?) would point out that the upbeat action and rosy pictures undercut the Chang family's poverty. Recipes for níangāo follow the story.

Not Zhuangzi's happiness of fish

Nathan Zimelman (author)

Julie Downing (illustrator)

The Great Adventure of Wo Ti

Macmillan, 1992

For certain individuals, a life of ease generates its own un-ease. So it is for the biggest, fattest carp dwelling in the pond of the paradisiacal Summer Palace. Wo Ti's constant searching is a bother to the other fish, and it comes to an end only when Wo Ti hatches a plan to rid the pond of an intrusive cat, Kitty Ho. In a light and fanciful manner, Nathan Zimelman shows us how some (all?) of us need a little drama, adrenaline, and relief to nudge us into a satisfying state of mind.

Hopeful thinking

Niimi Nankichi (author)

Kuroi Ken (illustrator)

Judith Carol Huffman (translator)

Buying Mittens

University of Hawaii, 1999

Like a blanket of fresh snow, Kuroi Ken's soft, pastel images envelope the reader in a dreamy world. In this wintry dream world, the shape-shifting fox is not a threatening enchantress, but an innocent fox-child who suffers from cold paws. Its mother transforms one paw into a hand, and sends her babe to town with strict instructions to buy mittens. When the babe mistakenly shows its paw instead of its hand, humanity is put to a test. Will they or will they not choose to live in harmony with the fox?

New Year primer

Demi

Happy, Happy Chinese New Year!

Crown, 1997

Demi's deep reservoir of talent for storytelling and illustrating goes untapped in this diminutive book that tries, it seems to me, to be all things to all readers. Various traditions and foods associated with the Chinese new year are covered in an obligatory manner. If you're looking for introductory knowledge about this holiday, you'll find it in Happy, Happy Chinese New Year!, but to appreciate Demi's gifts, I would urge you to try another of her many books, such as The Empty Pot or Su Dongpo. 

A game for the generations

Ginnie Lo (author)
Beth Lo (illustrator)
Mahjong All Day Long
Walker, 2005

With retro, Chinese-primer style illustrations and vernacular Chinese phrases, Mahjong All Day Long immediately transported me back in time to happy weekends when my parents and grandparents played round after round of májiàng 麻將. Ginnie Lo captures the memories of smells (tea and dumplings), tastes and textures (cracking roasted watermelon seeds), and sounds (slightly out-of-tune singing to the karaoke machine, thunderous shuffling of mahjong tiles, and exclamations of pòng! or húle!). At the book's end, there is a list of instructional books for those who would like to learn to play.

Wake me when my dream comes true

Dianne Snyder (author)

Allen Say (illustrator)

The Boy of the Three-Year Nap

Houghton Mifflin, 1988

  Set in pre-modern Japan, Dianne Snyder’s story of Taro and his widowed mother reminds us that even the most cunning of children may nevertheless be outwitted by their more experienced mothers. Taro’s laziness has earned him the nickname, “The Boy of the Three-Year Nap.” At the end of her patience and her resources, his mother urges Taro to work for the merchant. But slothful Taro would rather undertake a life of leisure and toward that end he masquerades as the ujigama, the town’s god, to take advantage of the merchant. Frightened, the merchant obeys the ujigama’s order to marry his daughter to Taro. But when he comes to ask the widow’s consent, she finds a way to cure Taro of his laziness.

  In their style, clarity, and narrative humor, Allen Say’s illustrations remind one of Hokusai’s woodblock prints.

Hunter, Guardian

Mary Casanova (retelling)

Ed Young (illustrations)

The Hunter

Atheneum, 2004

  Hunter Hai Li Bu wants nothing more than to provide the people of his village—children, young women, and white-haired elders—with food. When drought comes, his skills become critical to the village’s survival. As he searches for game, he chances upon a snake one day and rescues it from the clutches of a crane. As reward for saving his daughter, the Dragon King offers Hai Li Bu anything he wishes from his immense treasures. The hunter wants only to improves his skills, and so the Dragon King gives his the gift of understanding what the animals say. The gift, in the form of a pearly stone, must not be revealed, however, lest Hai Li Bu be himself transformed into stone. His hunting improves and the village flourishes until Hai Li Bu hears from the animals of an imminent flood. His love for and loyalty to his village are put to a fateful test.

  Ed Young’s ink and color illustrations powerfully capture the deep emotions and high stakes of this folktale.

Love Seen and Lost

Sumiko Yagawa (retelling)
Katherine Paterson (translation)
Kuekichi Akaba (illustrations)
The Crane Wife
William Morrow, 1981

Yohei, the Japanese everyman who was last encountered in this blog as a the son of a fishmonger, is in The Crane Wife a poor peasant in a mountain village. After he helps a wounded crane, a beautiful young woman knocks on his door and asks to become his wife. As the couple struggles to make it through the cold winter, she offers to weave cloth to sell in the market on the condition that Yohei refrain from watching her at the loom. Inevitably, predictably, and tragically he cannot restrain himself. In the end, Yohei is left with a bolt of gorgeous, unearthly cloth and no wife. Enthusiasts of Greek myths may hear in this Japanese folktale echoes of Psyche and Cupid. Kuekichi Akaba's illustrations are like the crane wife herself, delicate and enchanting and elusive. Beside her eloquent English rendering, Katherine Paterson gives us a note about the understandable popularity of the crane wife story in Japanese culture.

Follow that cat

Koko Nishizuka (author)

Rosanne Litzinger (illustrator)

The Beckoning Cat: Based on a Japanese Folktale

Holiday House, 2009

You know the one. The one that sits at restaurants and supermarkets and gift shops starting wide-eyed and raising a single paw at you. That's the one. They are everywhere, and apparently it all started with Yohei, a Japanese "everyboy." Yohei is a fishmonger who sells his fresh catch door-to-door. But when father falls ill, he must forego his work and meager earnings to look after his father at home. Despite the family's poverty, Yohei always shared some fish with a white cat, who now returns his generosity by beckoning customers to his home. Story and pictures are cute, and it's generally nice to reinforce the belief that goodness is rewarded, but there is not much more than that. I'm glad to have an explanation of the beckoning kitties, but now I'm left wondering, why do blue morning glories appear throughout the story?

3 stones + generosity = happiness

Jon J Muth
Stone Soup
Scholastic, 2003

With his quietly enchanting watercolors and light narrative touch, Jon J Muth transposes the European folk tale into a traditional Chinese setting. Three monks in lieu of soldiers arrive at the shuttered gates and windows of a town populated by villages who have long distrusted one another. Undisturbed, the monks set about gathering twigs and preparing stone soup. A young girl, curious and willing to open her heart, queries the monks and responds to their need for a bigger pot. Her action begins a virtuous cycle that leads to a communal feast. Get it, read it, share it, and keep the inspiration going.

Frightful fruit

Janie Jaehyun Park 

The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon

Groundwood Books, 2002

I always find it interesting to compare two or more versions of the same story, and so it was exciting to find another telling of this Korean folktale. What I like best about Janie Jaehyun Park's The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon are her illustrations. The stylized imagery of fungus-shaped clouds, layered hills, and downright goofy-looking tiger is drawn from traditional East Asian painting. Her colors and textures, though, are more of the Impressionist to Post-impression kinds. The combination (which is being explored by contemporary Chinese artists such as Zhang Hongtu) is anything but derivative. Park's prose pales next to her vivid pictures, and her telling demonstrates the key role played by the rabbit in Suzanne Crowder Han's version, but the pathetic tiger's face sticks. 

Not the Easter bunny

Suzanne Crowder Han (retelling)
Richard Wehrman (illustrator)
The Rabbit's Tail: A Story from Korea
Henry Holt, 1999

Readers familiar with this folktale will see the pun in the title—a tale about a tail. Some folktales convey a needed lesson for proper socialization; others are clever explanations for why things are the way they are. Suzanne Crowder Han's The Rabbit's Tail belongs to the latter category. A hilarious chain of misunderstandings begins with Tiger's unfamiliarity with dried persimmons. (And, just in case you don't know, it's a dried fruit, common in East Asia.) When he hears a baby hush at the mention of dried persimmons, Tiger imagines a being far more powerful than himself. Fearful, he seeks a hiding place in the barn. When a thief comes to steal an ox, he mistakes Tiger for a calf, which he ropes and then rides. Not seeing the thief, Tiger imagines that the dried persimmon has come after him. The thief soon realizes his error, and fears for his life. I am tempted to go on, but it would be too much of a spoiler. So, I'll just note that when the rabbit tries to spell out what is what, he probably didn't plan on losing his tail for it.

binga-binga

Katherine Paterson (translator)
Momoko Issii (author)
Suekichi Akaba (illustrator)
The Tongue-cut Sparrow
Lonestar Books, E. F. Dutton, 1987

Binga-binga, or sparkling clean, is how the old man renders first an ox and then a horse as he seeks the home of the tongue-cut sparrow. After performing these menial tasks with care, he meets the sparrow and offers an apology for his wife's cruelty (she was the one who snipped its tongue). In return, the sparrow offers the man a fine meal and the choice of two baskets, large or small, to take home. But...he must not open the basket until he reaches home. Heeding the sparrow's caution, he returns home where he and his wife are astonished by the treasure inside the basket. The thought of more treasure fills the old woman with greed. Thus, she makes her own trek to the home of the tongue-cut sparrow, leaving in her wake, gosho-gosho, a poorly washed ox and a poorly washed horse. Although we all know she will get her just desserts, it is still great fun to read about it. A series of onomatopoetic Japanese terms gives our own tongues some fun, and the caricatured expressions in Suekichi Akaba's spare illustrations are cute, monstrous, and funny. Words and images work together to stamp this folktale and its moral into our memory.