This is a beautiful Chinese folktale of a poor young farmer. He happens upon a shell that summons the moon goddess White Wave. She changes his fortunes and makes him beyond happy before she leaves. ( )

This story was immediately different than any of the other folklore I've read. The book is basically all black with a shell shaded on the cover. The end papers are also black and even the illustrations do not have any color except a thin, red border around each page. I like the simplicity of the story including the illustrations. The main theme was made clear in the last page that when we die and something ceases to exist, the stories being passed down are all that's left. The author stated that she consulted with people of Chinese descent who were familiar with the story when writing and editing. ( )

This beautifully-presented picture-book, with black & white illustrations by Ed Young, is a retelling of the traditional Chinese folktale in which a poor young farmer finds his fortunes changed for the better when he encounters the moon goddess, White Wave.

Although I know of at least one variant of this tale, Tuan and the Giant Snail, I am not sure of the literary and/or folkloric antecedents of this lovely story. The dust-jacket tells us that it is from the "Taoist tradition," but offers no other information as to source (lack of folktale attribution is one of my pet peeves).

Ed Young's illustrations have a luminous, ethereal quality to them, perfectly suited to the subject matter. I know that this tale was reissued in 1996, with a slightly altered text, but I'm not sure that such a revision was necessary. ( )

An unexpected gem. We picked this up a library book sale because the illustrations are stunningly beautiful. It turns out to be a lovely story too, an instant favorite of mine. I think my 4-yr-old liked it. ( )