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Favorite Children's Stories from China and TibetBy Lotta Carswell HumeIllustrated by Lo Koon-chiu 2002, 119 pages, hardback. |
ORDER -- Item #3178, Price $16.95
Down the narrow, twisting, noisy streets of the ancient cities-in other times-among the jostling rickshaws, the jolting sedan chairs, the wheelbarrows hauling squealing pigs, the traveling restaurants swung on shoulder poles, and the vendors hawking their wares, came the wayside storytellers to while away the long afternoon, holding the children spellbound with the stories they spun. Here Mrs. Hume first heard many of these traditional tales, and, during the twenty-two years she lived in western China with her husband, the late Dr. Edward H. Hume, helping him to establish the medical and educational center of Yale-in-China, she began gradually to collect them. Her hope was to make the stories available some day to young people of the West, so that they might be enjoyed around the world just as her own three children had enjoyed them with their Chinese playmates in Changsha. Now that hope is realized, with nineteen of these time-honored tales presented here in a format designed especially for its appeal to children. Mrs. Hume says she has enough tales still unpublished to make a sequel, in due course.
"The nineteen stories from various parts of China and Tibet are fresh and charming, full of humorous insights into Chinese life."
"In her tales, Mrs. Hume recreates the spirit of the people she knew for almost a lifetime."
"Each of these stories is filled with Oriental charm and imagination."
"... charmingly strange and strangely charming."
"They are excellent stories and should hold the attention of the younger set for hours if your voice holds out."
Book Description from the Front Cover Flap
FROM THE OLD walled cities of China and Tibet come these fascinating legends and stories that have captivated small Chinese and Tibetans for centuries. Here are the animals that speak and play tricks on each other, and especially on the great striped tiger, whom they love to depict as powerful but a bit on the stupid side. Here also are the humans who perform magic, both good and bad; here is a Chinese Cinderella, remarkably similar to our own; and here is a Tibetan creation story.
Stories In the Book
Comments from Back Cover
"These are fairy tales and Mommy says they are not real. But they are real interesting. Most of them are about animals. One of them is about Cinderella. Not Cinderella on TV back home, but a Chinese Cinderella who made friends with a fish. But her mean stepmother killed the fish and ate it. Then the story gets all mixed up and ends funny."
-Mark McPeek, age 6; Pacific Stars & Stripes
-The Horn Book Magazine
-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
-Los Angeles Herald Examiner
-The Daily Oklahoman
-The Sacramento Bee
Background on the Illustrator
Mr. Lo Koon-chiu, well-known children's artist of Hongkong, has supplied the more than 90 illustrations that lend this book its visual charm. Of these drawings, twelve are full-page color illustrations depicting a major scene of the story they accompany. All the pictures are done in the classic Chinese brush style, to fit the stories and their land of origin.
Mr. Lo, whose talent with the inkstone and brush first exhibited itself when he was five years old, studied drawing and water color under a number of famous Chinese painters. In due course he graduated from the Canton Technical College of Arts, where he concentrated on painting in the Western style.
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Copyright © 2003 by AACP, Inc.
Most recent revision October 1, 2003