Chinese children's favourite stories

Ye, Mingmei. Chinese children's favourite stories, Boston, MA. : Tuttle Pub, 2004.

This children’s book collects 12 Chinese traditional folktales and legends, which feature talking animals, a ghost catcher, a trickster fox, the River Dragon King, and the prankish monkey Wu Kong, as well as cowherds, scholars, musicians, and emperors. Most of the stories are familiar to Chinese people. Some stories regard morals; others explain the origins of customs or traditions. These stories include “The Frog Who Lived in the Well” and “The Monkey King who Turned the Heavenly Palace Upside Down”, and they are all suitable for reading to children at bedtime. The art has traditional Chinese characters with abundant colorful illustrations and the writing is clear and acceptable to children.

Mouse match: a Chinese folktale

Young, Ed. Mouse match: a Chinese folktale, San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, c1997.

It retells a very famous traditional Chinese folktale about the truth that nothing is completely prefect; everything has its strength and weakness.  The parents of a mouse want to seek the greatest and most powerful husband for their cherished daughter. The first suitor is the sun with whom her parents are very satisfied; but suddenly a dark cloud passes and eclipses the sun, so her parents consider the cloud is better than the sun; after a while, a wind comes to propose and he easily blows the cloud away. The wind is proud of his unbeatable power until a majestic mountain blocks his way. Despite the wind making great efforts to blow it away; the mountain is still standing stably.  As her parents are going to make their decision on the selection of the mountain, they discover that the mountain is full of caves and have already been nibbled to crumbs by mice. At last her parents realize that a mouse would be their best choice and their daughter finally marries with a mouse. This is an awarded children’s book which combines an excellent meaningful story, unconventional application of colors and special binding.