Customer Reviews

The Emperor's New Clothes: A Tale Set in China

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Demi retells Hans Christian Anderson's tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes" with Chinese-style illustrations. Always a pleasure, her artwork in this book- bold compositions with bright colors and lots of "gold leaf"- is similar to that in many of her other books, such as "Kites: Magic Wishes That Fly in the Sky." Her use of Chinese symbols and imagery here is not as relevant here as it is in her "Kites" book; it merely provides a new twist to an old tale. The book has several fold-out spreads, which kids enjoy, but these are not integral to the story as they are in her magnificent book, "One Grain of Rice: A Mathmatical Folktale." The ending of Demi's version of this fairy tale is not quite satisfactory: we do not see the emperor embarrassed by his situation. Instead he obstinatly marches on, seeming without shame or remorse. In short, "The Emperor's New Clothes" is not Demi's best or most original work, but it is an attractive new version of a favorite story.

I recently got this book because my literature program insisted that the Emperor's New Clothes was not British in origin (i.e. Hans Christian Andersen) but rather Chinese. Made sense. Our family has been studying Chinese lit and culture, so we gave this a try.

We loved it! It is a fabulous story that was recognizable to my littlest kids even though they knew the British story first. Meaning, the only real difference in the story is the fact that the Emperor is Chinese rather than British. Made a good lit comparison study. Sometimes when a culture imports a story, they change it around, but not here.

As Demi books go, this one isn't top of the line when you compare it to some of his others (i.e. Boy Who Painted Dragons), but it is still good enough to purchase. The kids liked the pages that open and close, and it is still done with Demi's signature style (gold shiny ink, etc). The only thing I missed (perhaps slightly wickedly) is that the Emperor had actually been naked at the end like Virginia Lee Burton did in her version. I know this is a matter of taste and my kids enjoyed seeing the Emperor's red dragon boxer shorts here, but I think you get extra smiles and depth of humiliation when you think of him parading around naked ;)

My 6 year old loves this book! We first found it at the library and my child kept checking the book out so frequently that we bought it for her for Christmas. It's very hard to find locally.

As a mother of a 28-month-old, I often feel that children's fairy tales should only be read by adults because such stories tend to be filled with objectionable levels of text and illustrations reflecting sexist, heterosexist, racist, violent and outright scary themes. (Despite Bettleheim's views on the uses of enchantment for children, I don't always agree that such content is useful or even benign for contemporary young children given the realities of today's American culture and media.) In order to familiarize our son for an upcoming children's musical theater production of The Emperor's New Clothes, I have been searching for the least objectionable of such books. I found 2 other versions that were barely passable but this one, by Demi, is not just passable but actually good. The illustrations are classic Demi (i.e. stunningly beautiful), including some fold-out 3 and 4 page panoramas. The text is straightforward, appropriately simple and clear but not wordy. This combination of stunning pictures and clear text make it a great read-aloud for toddlers and pre-schoolers and a beautiful book for adults to enjoy. The story is well-told with all the key plot elements included but without offending social-political sensitivies. Though I recognize that monarchies were just as objectionable in ancient China as they were in the Western world, the Chinese setting did help to make the story more palatable for my pro-democracy mind and it is nice to have a setting with exposure to a different culture as the incidental backdrop instead of being the obvious focus. I would highly recommend this book even if you don't have a particular event requiring a version of this classic tale.