THE KHAN'S DAUGHTER
Laurence Yep, , illus. by Jean and Mou-Sien Tseng. . Scholastic, $5.99 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-590-48390-2
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Reviewed on: 07/08/2002
Genre: Children's
Hardcover - 32 pages - 978-0-590-48389-6
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- WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWNLaurence YepYep leaves his oft-visited literary stomping grounds of San Francisco's Chinatown in this heartwarming historical tale based on real events. Ursula loves living in tiny Whistle, Mont., or what Continue reading »
- SPRING PEARL: The Last FlowerLaurence YepPart of the Girls of Many Lands series, this colorful novel introduces the spirited 12-year-old Chou Spring Pearl against the backdrop of Canton, China, during the Opium War of 1857. The recently Continue reading »
- DREAM SOULLaurence YepA teen and her younger siblings itch to accept their neighbor's invitation to a Christmas party; their parents, however think they should be celebrating Chinese holidays, "not American Continue reading »
- THE MAGIC PAINTBRUSHLaurence YepSet in San Francisco's Chinatown, this novel mixes elements of fantasy and fairy tale as an eight-year-old boy gets a paintbrush that transforms his dreary life. "Snappy dialogue, Continue reading »
- THE TIGER'S APPRENTICELaurence Yep"A very few must protect the many, and with no thanks for their efforts." An ominous portent for an eighth grade boy, but that's the lesson at the heart of this original fairy tale, in Continue reading »
- THE TIGER'S APPRENTICELaurence YepPW called this novel starring a boy, a dragon and a monkey (among others) who attempt to secure and protect a fabled phoenix egg, an "original fairy tale Continue reading »
- The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel IslandLaurence YepThis short novel about a father and son's journey from rural China to San Francisco in 1922 will firmly grip the target audience. The nine-year-old narrator, who is modeled on Laurence Yep's Continue reading »
- The Star MakerLaurence YepDrawing from his rich cache of childhood memories, Yep (The Dragon's Child) offers an affectionate celebration of family, cultural traditions, and San Francisco's Chinatown in the early 1950s. Like Continue reading »
- Dragon of the Lost SeaLaurence YepYep's sweeping fantasy tells of Shimmer, an exiled dragon princess, who must team up with a boy to try to restore her dragon clan's lost home. Ages 10-14. Continue reading »
- Child of the OwlLaurence YepGrowing up in San Francisco in the '60s, young Casey hears of her Chinese heritage and the mother she never knew from her grandmother, Paw Paw. Ages 12-up. Continue reading »
- The Rainbow PeopleLaurence YepGrouped under such auspicious headings as Tricksters,'' ``Fools and Vices and Virtues,'' these 20 Chinese folktales afford entertainment and subtle messages. Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
- Dragon's GateLaurence YepThis 1994 Newbery Honor Book, a prequel to Dragonwings, tells of 14-year-old Otter's 1865 emigration from China and subsequent travails in California. Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
- RibbonsLaurence YepA young Chinese American dancer is forced to give up her ballet lessons so her family can pay for her grandmother to emigrate. Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
- The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast TaleLaurence Yep""This Southern Chinese adaptation of a traditional Chinese tale gains notability through Yep's elegant, carefully crafted storytelling,"" said PW. Ages 5-8. Continue reading »
- The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel IslandLaurence YepThis short novel about a father and son's journey from rural China to San Francisco in 1922 will firmly grip the target audience. The nine-year-old narrator, who is modeled on Laurence Yep's Continue reading »
- Man Who Tricked a GhostLaurence Yep, YepAs he did in The Shell Woman & the King (reviewed July 12), Newbery Honor author Yep again reinvigorates a centuries-old Chinese tale. The hero, Sung, aptly dressed in red, is so fearless he picnics Continue reading »
- The Star FisherLaurence YepFifteen-year-old Joan Lee tells of her family's hard-won acceptance as the first Chinese-Americans in a small West Virginia town. It is 1927, and few in Clarksburg have the breadth of experience or Continue reading »
- The Shell Woman and the King: A Chinese FolktaleLaurence YepWhen Uncle Wu marries the beautiful Shell, who is of the sea and can assume the form of a seashell at will, he cannot resist bragging about her, and word soon reaches the realm's greedy, cruel king. Continue reading »
- The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast TaleLaurence YepFor aficionados of the ""Beauty and the Beast"" theme, this Southern Chinese adaptation of a traditional Chinese tale gains notability through Yep's (Dragonwings) elegant, carefully crafted Continue reading »
- Junior Thunder LordLaurence Yep, YepYep (The Man Who Tricked a Ghost) here gracefully wraps a 17th-century Chinese fable in a zestful style that speaks immediately to readers and vivifies its moral-that ``those at the top should help Continue reading »
- Later, GatorLaurence Yep, Eric ValasquezAdopting a light tone far removed from the solemnity of Hiroshima (see boxed review, page 297), Yep trains his attention on a close-knit family in San Francisco's Chinatown. Teddy's mother, insisting Continue reading »
- Hiroshima: A NovellaLaurence YepYep's account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its devastating aftermath is at once chilling and searing, hushed and thundering. Within a factual framework, the author sets the fictional story of a Continue reading »
- Tiger WomanLaurence Yep, YepThis zesty retelling of a Shantung folktale is as expertly executed as Yep's (Tree of Dreams) previous picture books. When a beggar asks a selfish old woman for a bite of her bean curd, she replies, Continue reading »
- The Khan's Daughter: A Mongolian FolktaleLaurence YepIn this humorous folktale, a cocky peasant, Mongke, sets out to win the hand of the Khan's daughter, and is given the requisite series of trials to prove his worth. He prevails, but not because he is Continue reading »
- The Case of the Goblin PearlsLaurence YepYep (The Khan's Daughter, reviewed above) is off to a roaring start with this launch to a mystery series set in San Francisco's Chinatown. As it begins, 12-year-old Lily's glamorous great-aunt Continue reading »
- The Cook's FamilyLaurence YepThis sequel to Ribbons takes a further searching and funny look at Chinese-American family life. Ages 10-up. (Aug.) Continue reading »
- Cockroach CootiesLaurence Yep""There are two kinds of people in this world--the bullies and the victims,"" Teddy tells his younger brother, Bobby; the two have just incurred the wrath of their schoolmate Arnie, better known as Continue reading »
- The Magic PaintbrushLaurence YepThe setting for this appealing contemporary tale is San Francisco's Chinatown, the same as for Yep's simultaneously released Cockroach Cooties (reviewed Feb. 14), but here Yep mixes in elements of Continue reading »
- The TraitorLaurence YepLaurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles-which traces the experiences of the Youngs, a Chinese family, over several generations in America (the publisher includes in the series Dragonwings, Continue reading »
- Skunk ScoutLaurence YepIn a sequel to Cockroach Cooties by Laurence Yep, Teddy's uncle gives him a weekend camping trip as a birthday present, transforming him into a Skunk Scout when he gets sprayed by the offender in Continue reading »
- Monster Makers, Inc.Laurence YepGodzilla makes an unruly pet, as teenage Piper Kincaid learns when his geneticist father hatches a monster a foot high to prove it's possible. (On the command, ""Tokyo,'' the little beast breathes Continue reading »
- The Rainbow PeopleLaurence YepThe sections into which these 20 stories are grouped--``Tricksters,'' ``Fools,'' ``Virtues and Vices,'' ``In Chinese-America'' and ``Love,''--offer readers a way to pick and choose their ways through Continue reading »
- The Lost GardenLaurence YepIn this somewhat desultory but affecting autobiography, Yep ( Dragonwings ) describes himself as a collection of disparate puzzle pieces: a Chinese-American raised in a black neighborhood, a child Continue reading »
- American Dragons: Twenty-Five Asian American VoicesLaurence Yep``If there is one animal that is synonymous with Asian mythology and art--and the heart--it is the dragon,'' writes Yep ( The Rainbow People , Drag on wings ), who adds that when Asians came to Continue reading »
- Tongues of JadeLaurence YepNoted children's author Yep ( The Rainbow People ; The Star Fisher ) scrupulously culls numerous early Chinese American tales, most of them collected as part of a 1930s WPA project in Oakland's Continue reading »
- Dragon WarLaurence YepMonkey opens this narration--part of the saga of the dragons' efforts to reclaim their home--where the events of Dragon Cauldron left off: he and his companions are captives of the Boneless King and Continue reading »
- The Star FisherLaurence YepBased on the author's own experiences, this Christopher Award winner movingly describes a Chinese American family's adjustment to their new home in West Virginia in 1927 and the prejudice they Continue reading »
- The Butterfly BoyLaurence YepDrawn from the writings of Chuang Tzu, the fourth-century B.C. thinker sometimes called the Butterfly Philosopher, this delicate prose poem tells of ``a boy who dreamed he was a butterfly and, as a Continue reading »
- The Ghost FoxLaurence YepDrawing on a classic Chinese ghost story, Yep delivers a lively, shivery tale in which a nine-year-old boy tests his wits against those of a powerful ghost fox. The stakes are high: the ghost fox is Continue reading »
- The Boy Who Swallowed SnakesLaurence YepLittle Chou leads a poor but honest life with his widowed mother. When he comes across a basket of silver, he tries to return it, but the owner refuses, knowing that the silver is tainted by the Continue reading »
- Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales from the Garden of NightLaurence Yep""Dreaming is a bond that unites us-beyond language and custom, beyond geography and time itself,"" writes Yep (Dragon's Gate; Child of the Owl) in his preface to this intriguing collection. Culled Continue reading »
- The City of DragonsLaurence Yep``Once there was a boy with the saddest face in the world. Even when he was happy, everyone who saw him thought he must be sad, and they became sad, too.'' Embellishing the memory of an disfigured, Continue reading »
- RibbonsLaurence YepYep fumbles with this strained tale about an 11-year-old girl who yearns to dance. The star of her ballet class, Robin Lee has to give up her lessons at Madame Oblamov's academy when her mother Continue reading »
- The Imp That Ate My HomeworkLaurence YepJim's Grandpop is widely known as the meanest man in Chinatown, and Jim is afraid of him. But then he meets the Imp, a truly nasty Chinese genie who has escaped from a dug-up vase. The Imp is out to Continue reading »
- AngelfishLaurence YepLaurence Yep continues the adventures of Chinese-American ballet student Robin Lee, previously met in Ribbons and The Cook's Family, in Angelfish, a twist on ""Beauty and the Beast."" Robin has Continue reading »
- A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of HumansLaurence Yep, Joanne RyderIn this series launch, Yep (the Dragon quartet), collaborating for the first time with his wife, Ryder (Won’t You Be My Kissaroo?), again conjures up a world where dragons and humans Continue reading »
- City of FireLaurence YepThey couldn't be more different: 12-year-old Scirye is the well-traveled daughter of a noble family from the ancient Kushan empire in central Asia. Leech, also 12, is a boy of the streets who trusts Continue reading »
- Seesaw GirlLinda Sue ParkThis first novel set in 17th-century Korea centers on 12-year-old Jade Blossom, daughter of one of the king's advisers. With all the temerity of a 1990s girl, Jade plays tricks on her brother (with Continue reading »
- The Seven Chinese BrothersMargaret MahyIn colorful language well suited to a story of ingenuity and valor, Mahy presents the Chinese folktale about brothers with amazing powers. Although the broad outline is the same as The Five Chinese Continue reading »
- The River DragonDarcy PattisonDrawing on elements of Chinese dragon lore, Pattison injects this bang-up original folktale with a ring of authenticity. Her story is presented in the traditional ``trial'' form: Ying Shao, a humble Continue reading »
- White Tiger, Blue SerpentGrace TsengFirst-time author Tseng, the daughter of the noted illustrators (Maples in the Mist), retells a folktale from southwest China. Kai and his mother work hard all day, Kai at fishing, his mother at Continue reading »
- Dragon Kite of the Autumn MoonValerie ReddixEach year, Tin looks forward to Kite's Day, when he and his grandfather fly a homemade kite and, as Taiwanese custom dictates, cut it free at nightfall with the exhortation, ``Go now and carry all Continue reading »
- Tales from the Bamboo GroveYoko Kawashima WatkinsIn the foreword to this eclectic selection of Japanese folktales, the author of So Far from the Bamboo Grove reminisces about her childhood in North Korea and the importance of stories in her Continue reading »
- Why Ducks Sleep on One LegSherry GarlandIn this singular collaboration, Garland's ( Song of Buffalo Boy ) breezy narrative and Jean and Mou-sien Tseng's ( The Seven Chinese Brothers ) beguiling watercolors offer an entertaining explanation Continue reading »
- Brother RabbitMinfong HoThis Cambodian trickster is just as brazen as his more familiar Western cousin, Brer Rabbit; he hones his wits, however, on a different set of dupes. In a chain of vignettes, Brother Rabbit flatters Continue reading »
- Have You Seen Trees?Joanne F. OppenheimVibrant watercolors impart new luster to this poem first published nearly 30 years ago and still humming with life. ``Have you seen summer trees?/ Shade-me-from-the-light trees./ Whisper-in-the-night Continue reading »
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