Customer Reviews

Story of the Chinese Zodiac: English Chinese

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

 

 

Pictures are colorful. Text is easy and fun for children of grade 1 to understand. Children were hanging on to every word. It's wonderful that the story is done in dual languages.

"Story of the Chinese Zodiac" is retold by Monica Chang with an English translation by Rick Charette. The story is presented in a bilingual English/Chinese format, and features illustrations by Arthur Lee.

The book tells the story of a great race which determines which animals get to be part of the Chinese zodiac. A central character in the tale is the Rat, who hatches a cunning plot.

The illustrations really make this book special. The pictures appear to be photographs of intricate, beautifully colored paper sculptures. There are some really memorable scenes: the cat and rat lounging together; the majestic Heavenly God consulting with the Earth God; the arrival of the majestic, multicolored dragon; and more. Some scenes are rendered very cleverly; I especially loved an aerial view of the animals running through the trees. Overall, a great book for children (and adults!) who have an interest in myth and folklore, or who just love innovative artwork.

This book has beautiful artwork, all cut paper, of the animals in the Zodiac story. I haven't read other books of this kind, but this one was used in my child's preschool class to talk about Chinese New Year, and all of the 4-5 year olds seemed to enjoy it a lot. I can see that kids would love to spend lots of time looking at the pictures themselves because they are so detailed and well-done.