China
Picture Books
Lemon Butterfly
By Cao Wenxuan, Roger Mello (Illustrator)
Lemon Butterfly. Cao Wenxuan. Illustrated by Roger Mello. Reycraft Books, 2020. ISBN 9781478869757. 32 p. (Ages 4-9).
One of China’s most popular children’s book authors, Cao Wenxuan was the first Chinese to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing. This book is the fruit of pairing Cao’s text with the artwork of Brazilian illustrator (and also Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration winner) Roger Mello, who adds striking illustrations in vibrant primary colors. The story follows the quest of a butterfly to find a field of flowers, “the most beautiful thing in the world.” [dj]
Mao and Me
By Chen Jiang Hong, Claudia Zoe Bedrick (Translator)
Mao and Me. Chen Jiang Hong. Translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick. Enchanted Lion Books, 2008. Originally published as Mao et moi in French by l’École des loisirs, in Paris, in 2008. ISBN 9781592700790. 96 p. (Ages 6-10). Picture book.
Though born and educated in China, artist Chen Jiang Hong has lived in Paris since 1987. Mao and Me is his first autobiographical picture book about his childhood during Cultural Revolution-era China. In a realistic style, Chen narrates his experiences growing up, as the cataclysmic events of the era rain hardship down on his family and neighbors. All the while, however, he retains a child’s view of Mao, and perhaps even some lingering affection for him. [cr/dj]
The Moose of Ewenki
By Gerelchimeg Blackcrane
The Moose of Ewenki. Gerelchimeg Blackcrane. Translated by Helen Mixter. Illustrated by Jiu Er. Greystone Kids, 2019. Originally published as Ewenke de tuo lu in Chinese, by Jie Li Chu Ban She, Nanning, 2018. ISBN 9781771645386. 68 p. (Ages 5-9). Picture book.
Written by a multi-award-winning, best-selling (and rare) author from Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in China bordering the country of Mongolia. Features a hunter from the reindeer-herding Ewenki people who inadvertently kills a mother moose, leaving an orphan calf. The hunter takes in the calf, but their relationship proves hard to sustain as the moose gets bigger (and a lot hungrier), and the hunter ages. The text is accompanied by richly detailed, painterly illustrations by Jiu Er, the first Chinese illustrator named to the IBBY Honour List. [dj]
A New Year's Reunion
By Li Qiong Yu, Helen Wang (Translator), Zhu Chen Liang (Illustrator)
A New Year’s Reunion. Li Qiong Yu. Translated by Helen Wang. Illustrated by Zhu Chen Liang. Candlewick Press, 2011. Originally published in China, in 2008. ISBN 9780763667481. 40 p. (Ages 3-7). Picture book.
A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book for 2011, this is the poignant story of a girl whose migrant worker father only returns home once a year at New Year’s—for just three days. The illustrations offer brightly-colored depictions of Chinese New Year traditions, but more importantly, reveal the touching relationship between father and daughter. [cr/dj]
Playing with Lanterns
By Wang Yage, Helen Wang (Translator), Zhu Chengliang (Illustrator)
Playing with Lanterns. Wang Yage. Translated by Helen Wang. Illustrated by Zhu Chengliang. Amazon Crossing Kids, 2021. ISBN 9781542029841. 40 p. (Ages 5-8). Picture book.
A White Ravens selection by first-time author Wang Yage, a literature professor, this story highlights the New Year Lantern Festival unique to Shaanxi, in northwest China. Award-winning illustrator Zhu Chengliang contrasts the bright, candy colors of bundled-up children and lanterns with the white of the snowy setting. The children’s fun in parading about with colorful lanterns lifts off the page, but is moderated by the sadness of having to crush and set aflame the lanterns on the 15th day of the New Year. [cr/dj]
The Story of Ink and Water
By Li Qingye, Chun Zhang (Translator), Peilong Liang (Illustrator)
The Story of Ink and Water. Li Qingye. Translated by Chun Zhang. Illustrated by Peilong Liang. Balestier Press, 2018. Originally published in China in 2013. ISBN 9781911221074. 36 p. (Ages 3 and up+).
An imaginative exploration of Chinese painting from a child’s perspective. We meet Water Girl, Brush Boy and Ink Boy, who discover that if they work as a team, they can create beautiful paintings. Former nursery school teacher Li Qingye weaves into the text details about traditional Chinese ink painting, which are complemented by the masterful ink paintings by illustrator Peilong Liang, which themselves are examples of the techniques described. Liang is an award-winning illustrator. [dj]
Middle Grade
Bronze and Sunflower
By Cao Wenxuan, Helen Wang (Translator), Meilo So (Illustrator)
Bronze and Sunflower. Cao Wenxuan. Translated by Helen Wang. Illustrated by Meilo So. Candlewick, 2017. Originally published by Phoenix Juvenile and Children’s Publishing in China, and then released by Candlewick sister company Walker Books in the UK in 2015. ISBN 9780763688165. 400 p. (Ages 9-12.) Fiction.
The Cultural Revolution provides the largely unspoken background to this beautiful story, in which a 7-year-old girl and her artist father are forced to move to rural China to be re-educated. After her father dies early in the book, she is taken in by the poorest family in the village. Despite their vastly different circumstances, she forms a tight bond with her mute brother, new family and fellow villagers. Mutual love and caring enable them to endure fires, floods, lack of food and bitter cold. This book earned translator Helen Wang the 2017 Marsh Award for Translation of Children’s Literature. Raved librarian Betsy Bird, “It’s bold and unfamiliar. Touching and terrifying. Historical but somehow also timeless... Do you truly want your kids to be citizens of the world? Then hand that world to them. Give them this book.” [dj]
Dragonfly Eyes
By Cao Wenxuan, Helen Wang (Translator)
Dragonfly Eyes. Cao Wenxuan. Translated by Helen Wang. Candlewick, 2022. Originally published in China by by Phoenix Juvenile and Children’s Publishing and then released by Candlewick sister company Walker Books in the UK in 2021. ISBN 9781536200188. 384 p. (Ages 9-12.) Fiction.
A Batchelder honor book, this is the second novel of prolific Chinese author Cao Wenxuan to be translated into English, following his receipt of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. A more direct encounter with the turbulence of Chinese history than that presented in Bronze and Sunflower, it is a multi-generational saga of a mixed Chinese and French family in Shanghai from the 1920s to the 1960s, as they weather the Japanese invasion, the Communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. [dj]
Monkey King: Journey to the West
By Wu Cheng'en, Julia Lovell (Translator)
Monkey King: Journey to the West. Wu Cheng’en. Translated by Julia Lovell. Forward by Gene Luen Yang. Penguin Books, 2021. ISBN 9780143107187. 339 p. (Ages 12 and up). Epic.
A new translation of a Chinese classic – “one of those books that if you grow up in China, you know the story,” says China scholar Jeffrey Wasserstrom. Abridged and rendered in colloquial English by University of London professor Julia Lovell, it traces the rollicking adventures of a shape-shifting monkey superhero with a penchant for mischief. Naturally pairs with Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel, American Born Chinese, which employs scenes from the Monkey King. [dj]
My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder
By Nie Jun, Edward Gauvin (Translator)
My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder. Nie Jun. Translated from French and Chinese by Edward Gauvin. Graphic Universe, 2018. First published as Les contes de la ruelle in French, in 2016. ISBN 9781541526426., 128 p. (Ages 7-11). Fiction.
A delightful set of four linked stories, told as a graphic novel, of a child and her grandfather living in a Beijing hutong—a neighborhood of narrow alleys and communal dwellings. It showcases the creativity and resilience of the residents, who though they may lack space and material goods, abound in humor and imagination. A 2019 Batchelder honor book, it was translated by Edward Gauvin from the French translation while consulting the Chinese original. [dj]
Rice
By Hongcheng Yu
Rice. Hongcheng Yu. Reycraft Books, 2020. ISBN 9781478869368. (Ages 8-12). Nonfiction.
A gorgeously illustrated nonfiction book on how rice is cultivated in China. Author/illustrator Hongcheng Yu lived in the mountains with farmers for two years to observe their planting and harvesting practices to create this book. Recipient of an honorable mention in the 2020 Freeman Book Awards, from the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia. [cr/dj]
White Fox
By Chen Jiatong, Jennifer Feeley (Translator), Viola Wong (Illustrator)
White Fox. Chen Jiatong. Translated by Jennifer Feeley. Illustrated by Viola Wong. Chicken House, 2019. First published by People’s Literature Publishing House, in China, in 2014. ISBN 9781912626083. 288 p. (Ages 8-12.) Fiction.
This is the first of two volumes to be translated of the best-selling Chinese middle-grade White Fox fantasy series to appear in English. It is the story of an orphaned arctic white fox who wants to become human, and searches for a magical moonstone that will give him that power. Translator Jennifer Feeley is winner of the 2017 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship. [dj]
Taiwan
Picture Books
Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village
By Fang Suzhen, Huang Xiumin (Translator), Sonja Danowski
Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village. Fang Suzhen. Translated by Huang Xiumin. Illustrated by Sonja Danowski. NorthSouth Books, 2015. Originally published in China by China Children’s Press and Publication Group. ISBN 9780735842168. 48 p. (Ages 4-8). Picture book.
An international collaboration, this Batchelder Honor book pairs a story by the prolific Taiwanese author Fang Suzhen with exquisite art from German illustrator Sonja Danowski, recipient of the Golden Island Award in the 2015 Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Concours. A touching story of a young child learning to accept his grandmother’s death. [cr/dj]