Journey of Silk

John S. Major (author)

Stephen Fieser (illustrator)

The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History

HarperCollins, 1995

John S. Major offers the youngest picture book audiences a good, solid introduction to a rather complex, multifaceted topic, the Silk Roads. Three strategies help condense and focus the material. First, a decision to narrow the time period to circa 700 CE. Second, the highlighting of silk as a form of currency, as a commodity, and as a luxury material. And third, frequent use of double-page spreads introducing a single location, such as Chang'an or Herat or Byzantium, for example. Major's descriptions seem generally accurate. One might quibble about whether true porcelain had been developed at that time and heavily traded. Ceramics would have been the more appropriate term. A more serious concern would be about the use of loaded language. While calling the Tang dynasty "glorious" does not raise eyebrows, I am less comfortable with the new mosque described as "looming" over the city market. Whether intentionally or not, biases make their way subtly into the story. Likewise, in this narrative, nomads are a malevolent force against "brave and enterprising" merchants. Perhaps somewhere out there is book that tells the other view of the pressures of sedentary empires to capture and control the pasturelands upon which the nomadic peoples rely. Still, I thought both Major's writing and Stephen Fieser's illustrations were engaging and informative for young people.

More on walls

Margy Burns Knight (author)
Anne Sibley O'Brien (illustrator)
Talking Walls: The Stories Continue
Tilbury, 1996

Margy Burns Knight adds vignettes about fourteen additional walls around the world to our expanding understanding of human societies and their built environments. East and Southeast Asia are represented by Tibetan prayer wheels built into temple walls, the walls of Wat Po in Bangkok, and "Dog Wall" in Shibuya train station, honoring the loyal Hachiko. Additional interest for Asian-Americans is found in the discussion of the barrack walls at Angel Island, where Chinese immigrants were detained in the early 20th century. As in her earlier book. Knight tackles tough topics of social justice, religious difference, and freedom.

In or Out?

Margy Burns Knight (author)

Anne Sibley O'Brien (illustrator)

Talking Walls

Tilbury, 1992

Margy Burns Knight's Talking Walls begins with a poetic musing by Robert Frost: "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out...." Following that thought, Knight takes us on a journey to fourteen walls from around the world and different times in human history. The earliest are found in the caves of Lascaux, adorned with images of horses, bison, and antelope dating to more than 17,000 years ago. These images spur us to wonder about early human communities and ways of life. Prison walls held Nelson Mandela captive until February 1990, and in this case the walls ask us to confront difficult, but important questions of freedom and justice. The book ends decidedly upbeat, with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Asia has somewhat limited representation with just two examples:  the Great Wall of China and the relief sculpture at Mammallapuram. (A sequel includes another three. Review coming soon.)

  By design, Talking Walls cannot delve deeply into any one particular wall and its historical context. Instead, the underlying theme yokes together diverse expressions of human cultures with our common humanity. It invites further exploration and discussion, and those with an interest may inquire with Tilbury for teachers' guides.

DIY

Lance Kramer (author)
Steven Weinberg (illustrator)
Great Ancient China Projects You Can Build Yourself
Nomad, 2008

If you have crafty, hands-on kids in your life, Great Ancient China Projects combines a little bit of history, lore, and culture with a variety of scientific and artistic things to do. The book reminds me of a workbook, and probably could be useful for lesson planning, home schooling, and the like. The layout is a bit too cluttered for my taste (more is not necessarily more), with somewhat perfunctory illustrations (sometimes odd, as when ink drawings of bronze vessels accompanies a chapter on silk and jade), and the occasional inexplicable looks-like-a-character-but-isn't (fengshui is 風水). But, if you don't mind picking and choosing for yourself, it could be a good resource for making paper, a mini terracotta army, a compass, noodles, and more. The book's aim is to get you out of the book and into your project, after all.

chu, chu! (giddy-up!)

Ted and Betsy Lewin

Horse Song: The Naadam of Mongolia

Lee and Low, 2008

  The gorgeous illustration on the first-page, imitating an exotic and well-browsed book, tells us that we are about to enter another world. Horse Song records in vivid words and images Ted and Betsy Lewin's journey to Mongolia to witness the Nadaam festival. The festival features a race in which middle-school-aged children ride semi-wild horses fourteen miles in the Gobi desert. Through the Lewins' travelogue we enter in the everyday rhythms of Mongolian life, like making curds from mare's milk, and hear of common dreams like winning the horse race. We learn about cultural expectations as when we squeeze alongside the Lewins into a tent so as to accept the hospitality offered us; and we experience in the curious gazes of our Mongolian hosts ourselves as Other. And, of course, there is the horse race, and there is no escape from a narrative that accelerates to a full-gallop finish. 

  The book marvelously transports us to another culture on another continent, and we hope one day to make use of the extra facts and the glossary the Lewins share with us.

Speak Chinese

Katy R. Kudela
My First Book of Mandarin Chinese Words
Capstone, 2010

This book is not going transform your little one into a bi-lingual wunderkind, but it is a colorful and attractive enticement for learning the mandarin Chinese names for people and objects around the house, on the farm, in town, and in a school room. It's hard for me to imagine learning accurate pronunciation from Romanization alone. But, if you have access to the internet, though, you may easily make up for the most obvious deficiency in this book. For best results, you will probably want to start your child before age 4. Jiayou 加油!

What is the hypothesis?

George Beshore
Science in Ancient China
Franklin Watts, 1998

George Beshore's introduction to science in ancient (really, pre-modern) China seems well meaning and reasonable, but there are enough minor errors and substantial questions to make me respond unfavorably. Minor concerns include the somewhat misleading title, as the scientific discoveries and developments discussed range in date from as early as 1500 BCE (writing and calendars) to as late as 1500 CE (two-stage rockets). The "ancient" descriptive effectively erases three millennia of historical change in China. Additionally, while I can see reason for using "science" as a shorthand for science and technology, nevertheless it is difficult to square the cover image—the Great Wall—with science. The Great Wall, it seems to me, is more about engineering, political absolutism, and military defense. (To the author's credit, I did appreciate the book's wide range of subjects, which included alchemy, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.) I was also frustrated with the inconsistency of Romanization of Chinese names and lack of attention to details. Regarding the latter, the photograph of the abacus on page 47 does not correspond to a number (the two beads on the rod 5th from left should have been "carried over" to the rod 4th from left). Finally, can anyone decipher the two characters that recur in the book? It looks like 相稽, but the second character lacks two strokes in the middle of its right half. Thus, I am unable to see the relationship between the Chinese compound and the book.
  But all these little issues aside, I think the big issue is the way Science in Ancient China oscillates between two narratives: first, that China accomplished any particular scientific feat X years before the Europeans, and second, here is how the Chinese understood such-and-such scientific phenomenon. The former is a kind of horse-racing narrative; the latter more descriptive and explanatory. There is, to my taste, too much of the horse-race. Moreover, the race ends badly for the Chinese who, at the book's end, are described as falling behind due to their cultural chauvinism. While that may be true, it seems to me there is a much richer story to be told about science in pre-modern China.

Holiday stories and fun

Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz, & The Children's Museum, Boston (authors)

Meilo So (illustrator)

Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: 

A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes

This kind of anthology is generally not my favorite type of book, but if you are looking for a single book about Chinese holidays, their associated folk tales, and traditions, this one is a good one. Too often, anthologies overwhelm and flatten their subject. Fortunately, rather than going with an encyclopedic approach, these authors have exercised care in their selection of topics and related stories, activities, and recipes.  

  The book is divided into four chapters according to four major holidays (counting New Year and the Lantern Festival as one). Folk tales include less common ones. I enjoyed the one of Dongfang Shuo whose cleverness saved Chang'an and makes sense of new year's show of firecrackers, fireworks, and lanterns. The tale of Jie Zitui, which involves an episode of self-sacrificing cuisine, is not for the squeamish and reminds us of how bracing folk tales really are. While I didn't try out the crafts and recipes, I can imagine that parents and teachers, as well as children, will enjoy them. The list of resources is excellent, and the guide to pronunciation is just about the best I have encountered.

Ancient China introduction

Ken Sheldon, editor
If I Were a Kid in Ancient China
Cricket Books, 2006

Co-authored by contributors to children's magazines Appleseeds, Calliope, and DIG along with staff at Cricket Books, If I Were a Kid in Ancient China is an eclectic mélange of short essays. I love the idea of the series, "If I Were a Kid in the Ancient World...," which includes volumes on Greece, Rome, and Egypt. I wish, however, that pieces in Ancient China hewed more closely to that idea of examining another time-place through the lens of a child. The introductory essay, "Made in China," is snappy, intriguing, and accompanied by attractive pictures. The next three pieces, on everyday life, dress, and toys amplify the introduction. Other essays stray into areas that are not so ancient China (foot-binding, for example, was not practiced widely until the Song dynasty; and the various religions spread along the Silk Road have distinct timelines, some of which do not overlap with ancient time frame).
  I found the fact-checking uneven, too. This volume is the first I have heard that connects the tiger design on children's costume to the visual form of the character for king, or ruler, 王 wang. The fifth Confucian virtue, knowledge, should be zhi, written 智; and I wished that the Chinese equivalent for Confucius was rendered Kongzi (孔子), instead of the latinized Chinese Kong Fuzi. Some of the illustrations implicitly mislead. An illustrations accompanying "A Visit to Chang'an" shows the Han-dynasty Mingtang 明堂, or Bright Hall, a site for state rituals. Without a caption, readers may easily think it represents Chang'an, the city. I don't know whether Chinese children really did collect ants for ant soup (p. 14), but I am reasonably certain that the stirrup was adopted by the Han Chinese from steppes peoples (p. 7).
  I am glad to have appealing and accesible non-fiction books to introduce English readers of all backgrounds to Chinese history and culture. I hope that in time, greater care will be taken to improve the quality of such books from good to excellent.

Taking flight

Marissa Moss (author) and Carl Angel (illustrator)
Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee
Tricycle, 2009

Moss tells the story of Maggie Gee, a Chinese-American pilot in the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP (I am not making up that acronym), in the first person. The time is the World War II, and women throughout the US have entered the workforce and enlisted to support the war effort. Gee jumps at this chance to pursue her childhood dream of flying airplanes.

Of 25,000 applicants, Gee is among 1,037 who graduate from flight school and becomes a WASP. Although the WASP never see combat, they help train other pilots and fly 60 million miles combined in missions. Moss' narrative includes an anecdote highlighting race. After a difficult landing involving another plane, Gee observes the other pilot's fright when he mistakes Gee's Asian features for Japanese enemy. "I felt like an exhibit at the county fair, a two-headed cow, the amazing Chinese American WASP." But the feeling lasts only a moment, as Gee quickly announces her citizenship and loyalties and resumes her identity as pilot, pure and simple.

In contrast to Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, Gee's biography reveals little discrimination and no generational conflict. In her case, the exigencies of war trump race; and the particulars of her goals are generalized as a story, equally valid as the stories of her mother and her grandmother.

Taking the plunge

Paula Yoo (author) and Dom Lee (illustrator)
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Lee and Low, 2005

Paula Yoo's true story of Korean-American Sammy Lee (born in 1920 in Fresno, California) traces Lee's olympic triumphs. He placed first in the 10-meter platform diving event in the 1948 games in London, and in doing so, Lee was the first Asian-American to win a gold medal. Four years later, Lee successfully defended his gold in Helsinki.

On the path to success, Lee encountered two formidable challenges. Discriminatory policies limited his access to the public pool, and so Lee dug a hole in his backyard, filled it with sand, and used that for practice. When Lee's immigrant father withheld support for athletics in favor of academics, Lee "struck a deal." If Lee earned marks high enough for medical school, then he could dive to his heart's desire.

Lee's dreams, those of his father, as well as the hallowed American dream all come true, and Lee's story continues to resonate, as young Asian-Americans struggle with negotiating ever-shifting American norms and with the aspirations and expectations of parents. In this context, Lee's story may be equal parts oppression and inspiration. How realistic is it to match Lee's achievements? Can any individual do it all and please everyone? As educators and parents express increasing concern about the programmed and stressful lives of students and children, Yoo's book offers an opportunity to discuss which goals to pursue and why.

A sage for our time, too

Russell Freedman (author) and Frédéric Clement (illustrator)
Confucius: The Golden Rule
Scholastic, 2002

Combining hagiography, biography, history, and political commentary, Freedman reanimates the life and teachings of the fifth-century BCE sage Confucius, or Kongzi 孔子. Freedman's writing is eminently accessible, but at times, I wished he would exercise more discretion. Some casual claims about, say, the feel of the town marketplace, are improbable window dressing; and myths and legends receive the same treatment as historical persons and events. Further, I wished for more careful, bilingual editing, as the character for li 禮 (meaning ritual) is mistakenly written li 利 (meaning profit). Clement's illustrations have a strange, otherworldly and nostalgic feel, with bits of fruit and flowers scattered almost artfully across torn and fading images. Such aspects of writing and illustrations prove frustrating for the reader keen on minimizing the ingredients of Orientalism. Still, Freedman's thoughtful engagement with some of the ideas rang alarmingly true. I apprciated his discussion on the rectification of names, meaning, for example, calling only those who act with wisdom and benevolence  kings. Now, just as in the past, Freedman rightly points out, we have so-called leaders who clearly are not leading.

On the inside covers, Freedman includes sayings from Confucius' Analects, aphorisms to live by. Here is one of which, in my capacity as reviewer and writer, I am especially mindful: I am fortunate indeed. Whenever I make a mistake, there is always someone to notice it.

China's Leonardo

If you haven't read a book by author Demi, then in your next spare moment, buy, borrow, or beg one. Her books are hands-down gorgeous. Su Dongpo, her illustrated biography of Su Shi (1036-1101) has page after page of splendid illustrations inspired by Chinese woodblock prints. Demi's prose is clear and accessible, and she doesn't try to compete with the poetry of Su Shi himself or Su's mentor Ouyang Xiu or the ageless Dao De Jing. Here, for example, is an excerpt from Su's most famous prose-poem on the Red Cliffs found 3/4 through the book:

Letting the boat go where it pleased,
we drifted over the immeasurable fields of water.
I felt a boundless exhilaration,
as though I were sailing on a void
or riding the wind
and didn't know where to stop.
I was filled with a lightness,
As though I had left the world
and were standing alone, or had sprouted wings
and were flying up to join the immortals!

 For those who wish to know more about this remarkable man, whose talents ranged from hydrological engineering to community service to the arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting—Demi provides a solid list of sources at the book's beginning. Her use of pinyin Romanization isn't consistent (Renzong and Jentsung are both used for the same emperor, and Su Shih should really be Su Shi). There are other facts of Demi's biography that may also be debated, but my overall impression is  positive. Demi's respect for Su is authentic, and I'm so glad to see an appealing children's book about him.

Demi
Su Dongpo
Lee and Low Books, 2006

Writing pictures

Two idiomatic phrases in the Chinese culture and in the west, respectively, yoke together images and words. Chinese scholar-painters, hewing to high-minded literary ideals, liked to think of their artistic practice as "writing pictures." Thus, their paintings would be infused with poetic and calligraphic sensibility. In the west, the phrase "a picture paints a thousand words" suggests how a single image can capture and convey in an instant a human saga. Pictures have a way of reaching across cultures and generations. Here are three books that deal, in different ways, with painting and childhood.

What I liked best about Peter's Painting was that Peter's ethnicity (signaled by facial features, hair texture, etc.) was purely incidental. Peter is an everychild, who channels his creativity into paintings of a bird that flies, a snake that slithers, and a fish that swims. Finally, Peter paints a door that opens into—you guessed it—the colorful world that Peter created. The text is simple and repetitive (think Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear).  And while the text and illustrations aren't the most memorable, it is refreshing to have a book in which a child with Asian features is treated just like anyone, and everyone else.

Before emigrating to Canada (following the Tiananmen tragedy of 1989), Song Nan Zhang experienced the ups and downs of life under Communism in the People's Republic of China, and eventually attained a professorial post in Beijing. Zhang channels his life, his optimism, and his talent into The Children of China: An Artist's Journey, which is one part autobiography, one part children's coffee-table book, and one part illustrated ethnography.  Each of these parts is compelling in its own way: Zhang's story is inspiring and hopeful, the book is filled with his colorful and sensitive paintings of children, and the children hail from many ethnicities that make up the PRC, including Tibetans, Mongolians, Kazakhs, Uygurs, and Yi. The map at the book's beginning helps us to locate the paintings geographically, and I like how easily the book replaces a mono-ethnic view of China. But because the book doesn't fit easily into any particular genre, presenting it to your children may be a challenge. It might be better consumed as a coffee table book, in a leisurely, non-linear fashion, and certainly it would be great in a classroom setting.

Zheng Zhensun and Alice Low's book about Wang Yani, A Young Painter, discusses the life and work of a talented girl from toddler-hood to early adolescence. The book is filled with photographs of Yani at work and at play, and lots of her paintings. The ones of mischievous monkeys are absolutely delightful. The book is substantial non-fiction (80 pages, including appendix, glossary, map, and index), and is thus especially rewarding for art enthusiasts. But, the many colorful paintings would be wonderful inspiration
to wider audiences old and young.

Sally Moss (author) Meredith Thomas (illustrator)

Peter's Painting

Mondo, 1995

Song Nan Zhang

The Children of China: An Artist's Journey

Tundra Books, 1995

Zheng Zhensun and Alice Low (authors)
A Young Painter: The Life and Paintings of Wang Yani—China's Extraordinary Young Artist
Scholastic, 1991

D is for Double

In 2006, two alphabet books sharing the theme of Chinese culture were respectively titled, D Is for Dragon Dance and D Is for Dancing Dragon: A Chinese Alphabet. Coincidence? Despite the near duplication of titles and some of the entries (A is for acrobats and Z is for Zodiac, among them) the two books have different content.

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

Ying Chang Compestine (author) and Yongsheng Xuan (illustrator)
D Is for Dragon Dance
Holiday House, 2006

School daze

Trish Marx and Ellen B. Senisi's book does cultural comparison brilliantly. Flip the book over, and on the opposite cover, you'll see a like group of lively Chinese kindergartners. Each half of the book takes us from morning welcome at 9 am, through lessons, lunchtime, and recess, to learning how to get along and wondering about the kids on the other side of our planet. The text and pictures make clear that while we might be different superficially, we share common human traits: love of learning, joy in physical activities, and desire for respect and friendship. The Chinese half provides a handful of vocabulary words in context, such as laoshi 老師 (teacher).

Trish Marx and Ellen B. Senisi
Kindergarten Day USA and China: A Flip-Me-Over Book
Charlesbridge, 2010