Rice

Keyed to the subtle shifts in season delineated by the Chinese lunar calendar, Yu attentively describes and illustrates traditional rice-growing practices spanning a seed-to-harvest cycle in China’s Yunnan province. On each spread is lavishly detailed art in subtle, vibrant colors approaching photo-documentation precision, accompanied by lyrical descriptions of what’s shown: “The flowers on the pear and peach trees blossom and wilt. Farmers begin to plant the sprouted seed into flat, soft seedbeds.” Chinese characters framed by a circular stem of rice indicate the precise moment in time depicted: “Insects Awaken/ March 5–7”; “Cold Dew/ October 8–9.” Though Yu provides visual footnotes and deep explanations of some processes, including soaking (“the absorbed water amounts to 40% of a seed’s weight”), self-pollination, and milling, there is no clear explanation of what a rice paddy is or why rice is grown this way, and various botanical terms go undefined. Still, Yu crafts a detailed introduction to traditional Chinese rice farming. Ages 9–up. (Apr.)