Customer Reviews

Judge Rabbit and the Tree Spirit: A Folktale from Cambodia

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This is a must have for any mixed families of English speakers and Cambodians. Mainly because it's the only children's story that includes Khmer text and English text.

I can read the story to our son in English, and my wife can read it to him in Khmer. He is exposed to both languages and learns that different words can describe the same concept.

It's a great baby shower gift for a mixed Khmer-American family (or Khmer-Canadian, etc.).

This is a delightful introduction to the many Cambodian folk tales that feature Judge Rabbit, the "trickster" Judge who is always on the side of the righteous and wise.

The story involves a Tree Spirit who becomes jealous of the happy life of a young couple, and poses as the absent husband while he has been called to defend his country by his King. When the husband returns from war, the young bride is confused as to the identity of her true husband, while Tree Spirit maintains the ruse. That is, until Judge Rabbit enters the picture and tricks the Tree Spirit into revealing himself, and captures him to keep him from harming our couple's happiness forever more.

I found the illustrations a bit oddly colored, but my children (Khmer-Ham and European) did not mind.

This is one of the few books available in English and Khmer (Cambodian) with clean Pali script that is easy to read. My wife reads the Khmer to the children, and I read the English, so for our family this works very well.

The binding is high quality and will last for a long time even with rough handling from many hands.

Cathy Spagnoli has again done an excellent job of adapting a spoken folk tale into a picture book text - a task that is much more difficult than it appears. Nancy Hom's illustrations include the Khemer text. While few will be able to read the Khemer, it is an excellent way to introduce children to the concept of different alphabets. The tale itself is a simple tale of a newlywed heading off to war only to have a tree spirit impersonate the groom to the bride. When the true groom returns, a wise rabbit serves a judge to set the world back in order. As with many of the animal folktales, there is a gentle moral to the story ... far gentler than the Western Aesop tradition.