Monica Chang

★★★The Mouse Bride:A Chinese Folktale by Monica Chang

This was an odd little story. It's about a mouse whose dad is trying to marry her off to the best husband. The ceremony he plans, is destroyed, and his daughter is missing. No he needs to find his daughter and her future husband.

Not sure why, but our school has discarded this book. It is in great shape. The only reason I can see is there are a few questionable pictures, such as a mouse using the bathroom in the river and a mouse smoking a pipe.… (mere)

The Mouse Bride is a heartwarming Chinese Folktale about a mouse father who is seeking the strongest husband for his daughter. Initially the father decides to choose a suitor by seeing which among a group of young mice can catch a ribbon ball he created. However, his plan is thwarted when a cat lunged for the ribbon ball, smashing everything to pieces and driving all the mice away, the mouse daughter is quickly saved by a young mouse named Ah-Lang.

The father, accompanied by Ah-Lang, sought the sun, clouds, the wind, and the wall - all who claimed to be the strongest of all beings - but the sun was covered by the clouds, the clouds were blown away by the wind, the wind blew mouse father against a wall, and finally, the wall turned out to be afraid of mice. All along, Ah-Lang almost drowned when the wind blew him into the river and somehow gets trapped in the wall - and mouse father realizes that although mice are small and the elements are strong, mice have skills that no one else have. So mouse father decided that Ah-Lang is the strongest and thus marry his daughter.

The plot is full of action and is well-complemented by the Ancient Chinese Art style illustrations. The sun, wind, and clouds being drawn as god-like, mighty cats give the reader a sense of how strong they seemed to be to the mouse father. The use of the color red, which symbolizes good fortune in Chinese culture, was also highly effective in the pictures - bright reds and orange were mostly incorporated for the celebratory and triumphant moments such as the decision to make Ah-Lang the husband and the wedding party, and little use of red in the times of challenge such as when the mouse father and Ah-Lang were on their journey. The use of color, style of art, and the plot of the story all work together to represent cultural norms.

The book is highly appropriate for ages 8-10, and would be a great tool in teaching world cultures through folktales.… (mere)

This picture book is about the Chinese folktale about the creation of Chinese zodiac. The Heavenly God decides to have a race to which the first twelve animals that crosses the river shall be the twelve zodiac animals. Two friends, a cat and a rat decides to join the race, but the cat is worried about crossing the river. The rat assures the cat that the ox will carry them across the river, if they would be his guides. The cat agrees in helping the ox. The next day is the race, the ox, mouse, and cat were at the middle of the river and it is then that the rat decides to push the cat off the ox's back. The rat and ox continue to move towards shore while the cat is left saving his life. The ox does not notice the cat had fallen behind. In the end, the rat finishes the race first. Thus, making the first zodiac animal. The animals following after the rat are ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and a pig. The cat was the thirteen animal to had crossed the river and was not rewarded to be a zodiac animal.

This picture book is written in both English and Korean. It can also be found in Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Hmong, and Cambodian.

I love the illustrations in the picture book due to it is all made with paper crafts. The animals created by the paper crafts are adorable and it is amazing that the animals' expressions throughout the book are captured as well.

The book is suited for children ages seven to ten due to the picture book is lengthy. The language and vocabulary are simple in the book. It also tells the audience why cats and rats are mortal enemies and why rats only come out at night. Though, the explanation is incorrect the audience will see that it is a folk tale.… (mere)

Who has not heard the tale of the Three Little Pigs, but what makes this tale pop is the larger than life bright illustrations. The book itself is as big as the toddler your reading to. This traditional tale teaches the value of using good judgement and hard work.
Personal Response: I chose this book to do a reading for a class of 3 to 5 yr olds it was a huge hit the kids loved how big the characters were and really got into the story.It was a blast!
Extensions: 1) the book comes with huge site word cards to help with your early readers 2) Have the kids act the story out as a class project its a hoot!… (mere)