This is the second book in a series for young children that will introduce them to other cultures through pictures and language.
Books will ship on or before October 1, 2010
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about I See the Sun books.
. . . One thing I love about this book is the glossary. I certainly found it useful! It defined some of the terms with which the average American may not be familiar, such as Tai Chi and congee! |
With a loving heart for China, the writer tells a story about... a girl whose natural and simple curiosity about her own future reflects the expectation for change in China overall. —Zhang Jia Zhu, |
I See the Sun in China
By Dedie King with illustrations by Judith Inglese
ISBN: 978-0-9818720-5-6
40 pages
Price: $12.95
Pre-Publication Price: $9.95 (price valid until October 1, 2010)
For children ages 4 and up
Each book in the I See the Sun series portrays a feeling of the essential cultural elements of a country in a clear and simple way. China has undergone many changes throughout its long history. The last fifty years has seen it transform from a lower income traditional society to a major economic force in the world, with modern cities and increased individual wealth. We try to capture this central idea of movement in today’s China through words and pictures, telling the story of a day in the life of one child. The little girl and her family are Han and the story is about Shanghai because this city epitomizes the movement of young people from the country to the city, the progress of old to new, and the connections to other parts of the world.
. . . Visually, we found the book interesting. First, the illustrations are a mixture of paper cutouts, pictures and drawings. Second, the text on each page is in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Now, none of us can read a lick of Mandarin, but just having those characters there helped set the atmosphere of reading about China. |
The cover of this book symbolizes the three themes of traditional old, movement and change, and the modern society. The picturesque sailing junk represents the old history and lifestyles still present in China today. The ferry shows the movement from the old to the modern, and the buildings of Shanghai show the vast modernization that continues to thrust China into the future. Elements in the story depict the converging of these three aspects of China today.
China is a very large and very diverse country, both in landscape and in peoples. The majority group is Han Chinese. About 8% of the 1.5 billion people belong to a minority group. Tibetan, Uyghur, Yi, Yao, Mongol, and Naxi are but a few of the 55 ethnic groups lving in the People’s Republic of China.
About the author: Dedie King was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the mid sixties. Presently Dedie practices Taoist acupuncture in Massachusetts.
About the illustrator: Judith Inglese designs and fabricates ceramic murals for public spaces such as hospitals, libraries, schools and outdoor urban environments.