China & Taiwan
China
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]