In celebration of the 2021 Multicultural Children’s Book Day on Friday, January 29, I want to share my review of “Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories,” written and illustrated by NYC author Mingmei Yip and published by Vermont-based Tuttle Publishing.
Disclosure: I was gifted a copy of Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories. Opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.
#ReadYourWorld
This is a beautifully illustrated hardcover book, with a total of thirteen “fables, myths, and fairy tales.” Most of the stories, such as the Monkey King/Sun Wukong (孫悟空), the Cowherd and the Spinning Girl (牛郎織女, sometimes translated as the Weaver Girl), and Chang-E (嫦娥), are familiar to me. Having read iterations of these stories throughout the years, I appreciate the simplicity and clarity of the stories in this book, making them suitable for reading aloud to my preschooler. Pre-covid, he saw a puppet show about the Monkey King with his preschool class, so his favorites from the book are “The Monkey King Turns the Heavenly Palace Upside Down” and the follow-up story, “The Monkey Wu Kong Learns His Lesson.” We also had a great time reading “Chang-E Flies to the Moon,” as we recently watched the Netflix animation “Over The Moon” which, oddly, left out the backstory of Houyi and the ten suns and how it affected his relationship with Chang-E. While some of the stories, namely “Playing the Qin for the Water Buffalo” and “The Dream of the Butterfly,” may be too philosophical for my preschooler, I look forward to revisiting these stories with him when he is older.
As you can see from the photos, the watercolor illustrations are a modern take of traditional Chinese paintings. They are colorful and playful, which my preschooler enjoyed tremendously. One of my pet peeves is sloppily written Chinese characters in children’s books. Therefore, I was delighted to discover that the author is a Chinese calligrapher and her calligraphy is just as gorgeous as her illustrations. Overall, this book is a wonderful addition to our home library and I look forward to reading more books by Mingmei Yip and Tuttle Publishing.
To learn more about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, please visit: multiculturalchildrensbookday.com
You can learn more about the author, Mingmei Yip, here: www.mingmeiyip.com
You can learn more about the publisher, Tuttle Publishing, here: www.tuttlepublishing.com