Monday, September 28, 2009

Review of YEH-SHEN, A CINDERELLA STORY FROM CHINA by Ai-Ling Louie

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Louie, Ai-Ling. 1982. YEH-SHEN. Ill. By Ed Young. New York: Philomel Books. ISBN 039920900X

2. PLOT SUMMARY

In China, a cave chief takes two wives and each gives him a daughter. One wife dies, and the chief also dies soon after. The orphaned daughter is raised by her stepmother. Yeh-Shen is beautiful, while the step-mother’s daughter is not. Yeh-Shen is ostracized by her step-mother and befriends a fish in her loneliness. The step-mother murders the fish, but the fish’s spirit lives on to grant Yeh-Shen anything that she needs. Yeh-Shen talks to the bones of her deceased fish. The Spring festival arrives, which is where young men and women pick a mate. The step-mother and daughter attend this event without Yeh-Shen. She tells her fish that she wants to go, but has no clothes. The fish gives her new clothes, along with Golden Shoes. She goes to the festival, but fears that she is recognized by her step-mother. She rushes home and loses one of her shoes. The shoe ends up in the hands of a prince. He tries to find the owner, and discovers that Yeh-Shen’s feet are the only ones to fit the shoes. He marries her and punishes the step-mother and daughter by banning them from the kingdom. They are left to live forever in their cave and are later crushed to death by falling stones.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This story is set in China, and was written during the T’ang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) The author was told this story by her grandmother. She researched the story to an ancient Chinese manuscript. The story is simple to read and will hold the interest of any age group. Most children will relate to a girl who grows up lonely and loses her only friend. Most children will also recognize that this is a variant of the Cinderella story.

The illustrations are beautiful. The illustrator uses pastels and shimmering water colors, which are set in panels like those of a Chinese printed screen. This adds to the authenticity of the story. Children of Chinese heritage will find the story and illustrations familiar. Every child will find the story appealing and the art work magical, but it also offers a glimpse into Chinese culture, which many might not otherwise have been exposed.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

BOOKLIST review: "A misty dreamlike air. A worthwhile addition to picture-book collections."
PUBLISHER‘S WEEKLY review: "Misty, jewel-like illustrations evoke the mythic past in this Chinese Cinderella story."

AWARDS:
* School Library Best Book of the Year,
* ALA notable Book
* IRA-CBC Children's Choice Book

5. CONNECTIONS

This book could be used to look further into Chinese culture. A non-fiction book about China could be used along with this book to show how the author and illustrations parallel the Chinese culture. This book could also be used with excerpts from novels by Laurence Yep, which focus on the difficulty some Chinese families have trying to blend in with American culture as new citizens. Another great short-story that goes along with this idea, would be “The All-American Slurp” by Lensey Namioka.

This Cinderella story could also be used as a compare and contrast activity when read along with the Disney Cinderella story with which most Americans are familiar.

You could display all the Cinderella variants that you have in your library and let students choose one. They could present it to the class and also look into the culture and talk about interesting facts about the culture from which their story originated.

Students could also write their own version of Cinderella. How could they come up with a story from their own family dynamics. Their brothers or sisters could become the wicked step-brothers, or their dog or pet could become their fairy-godmothers. If they can’t come up with the whole story, you could list the main characters and let them pick which characters from their own family or friends to use in the story. You could have a generic version and let them put in their own character names. Then, each could share their version for the class.

No comments:

Post a Comment