For readers interested in magic, this tale skillfully offers a hint of China’s rich mythology.
A unicorn searches for a Royal Phoenix who’s disappeared in this picture book.
Rin, a pink-scaled, blue-maned, one-horned qilin, or “Chinese unicorn,” lives on Singing Sand Hill. “When the wind blows over the dunes, it sings a song, and I sing with it,” Rin says. But it’s the unicorn’s ability to fly that comes in handy when Princess Pingyang writes that Fan, the Royal Phoenix, has vanished and must be found in time for the Friendship Concert on Peach Blossom Island. Rin thinks of places that Fan might play and visits Five Flower Lake, the Ever White Mountains, Heaven Lake, and the Reed Flute Cave, gathering his dragon, tiger, and tortoise friends along the way. Rin eventually realizes that he needs all of his pals in order to locate Fan. The magical central characters have bright colors and large, cute cartoon eyes. But their bodies take slightly different shapes from page to page in pastel-colored digital paintings with thin, spidery lines that evoke Chinese guohua. Pingyang appears as a child with enormous eyes who exerts a benevolent authority; the Friendship Concert is described as a symbolic occasion between the Tang dynasty and the Lingyi kingdom (present-day Vietnam). Both Liu’s art and Lee’s story are deftly crafted to introduce young readers to historically important sites, symbols, and mythical creatures from the Tang dynasty. While historical facts are a bit thin, an afterword provides more information.
For readers interested in magic, this tale skillfully offers a hint of China’s rich mythology.Pub Date: April 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-91-389112-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Balestier Press
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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