A 2006 IBBY Honor List title, this innovative book combines the story of Liu who goes off to visit her grandfather with a rebus-style look at the evolution of Chinese written language from pictures to today's modern calligraphy characters. You can read them, play with them, and dream about them. This book is sure to please children and adults of all backgrounds with its peek into this fascinating topic.
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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-A bird guides a small Chinese girl on a journey to visit her grandfather after he summons her in her dream. She passes through a traditional Chinese landscape-river, forest, field, mountain, and bamboo grove-to find the man waiting for her to join him in drawing. The story's conclusion is inspired by the traditional Chinese belief that pictures may come to life. The events of Liu's journey serve the purpose of introducing one or more Chinese characters. Striking, richly colored linocuts combined with torn paper and framed in black line incorporate, in a handsome page design, a series of three squares, each tracing the evolution of a character. The first square shows a picture; the second, an early pictograph; and the third, a modern character. The accomplished calligrapher uses standard rather than simplified characters. Huy Voun Lee's books introducing Chinese characters-In the Leaves (Holt, 2005), for example-follows a more coherent story line, as a Chinese boy shows his friends how to write and pronounce the characters. Louis's title provides a handsome counterpoint, both evocative and educational.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Gr. 2-4. A Chinese girl journeys up the mountain to visit her grandfather, who gives her a brush and asks her to draw what she has seen along the way. Bold, distinctive linocut prints on dyed, textured papers illustrate the story. On each double-page spread readers will find a few lines of text, a large picture of the child on her journey, and a series of thumbnail images that take a word from the story and show the pictorial evolution of the Chinese character representing it. Illustrating the word river, for example, is a postage-stamp-size picture of wavy lines (water) placed between rows of upright, spiky lines (plants on the banks). The second picture simplifies the first to five wavy lines; the third shows the Chinese calligraphic symbol for river, three curved lines. Not every progression is straightforward, but like Ed Young's Voices of the Heart (1997), this presentation connects the ideas behind words with the Chinese characters that stand for them. With striking artwork and an unusual concept, this challenging picture book demonstrates the pictographic origins of symbols in the development of writing. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Striking visuals, poetic story to introduce Chinese calligraphy,
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This review is from: Liu and the Bird: A Journey in Chinese Calligraphy (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition) (Hardcover)
This simple story distills Chinese pictographs into their most basic elements, showing how they evolved to their present forms. But it's also a delightful and poetic story about a girl who dreams her grandfather calls to her from across the mountains.
She sets out on foot, recording the scenery and people she encounters in her calligraphy, creating multiple layers of storytelling. I read each page carefully, going over the boldfaced English words (the original was in French) and matching them to the Chinese symbols to make sure I understood. Louis writes on the back flap that she used linocuts, a type of woodcut, with dyed paper so she could "contrast the strong lines of the prints with the softness of the torn paper." It creates a striking visual effect, with the print marks simulating the strokes of a calligraphy brush, and the vivid colors of a Westernized palette bleeding elegantly into the paper beneath. Chinese calligraphy will always be a subject that must be absorbed rather than scanned; make sure you have some quiet time for its meditative lessons. Note: includes activities for creating pictograms with your kids.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One amazing book with unbeliebal price,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Liu and the Bird: A Journey in Chinese Calligraphy (Paperback)
This is one of most beatiful book I ever see about Chinese language .I am a Chinese with B.A of Chinense language &Literature .It help me understand more about our culture .Thanks .
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing illustrations,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Liu and the Bird: A Journey in Chinese Calligraphy (Paperback)
I loved Liu and the Bird when I saw it at a local library. I sent a copy to an artist friend knowing she would share it with her grandaughter. Besides showing how Chinese calligraphy evolved from pictograms, it is a great story.
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First Sentence:
That night, the moon came in through the window. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
That night, the moon came in through the window. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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