The Rainbow People - Hardcover

Yep, Laurence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060267607 ISBN 13: 9780060267605

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1989

Synopsis

A collection of twenty Chinese folk tales that were passed on by word of mouth for generations, as told by some oldtimers newly settled in the United States.

About this title

About the Author

Laurence Yep is the acclaimed author of more than sixty books for young people and a winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. His illustrious list of novels includes the Newbery Honor Books Dragonwings and Dragon's Gate; The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee; and The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island, which he cowrote with his niece, Dr. Kathleen S. Yep, and was named a New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing" and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book.

Mr. Yep grew up in San Francisco, where he was born. He attended Marquette University, graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and received his PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He lives in Pacific Grove, California, with his wife, the writer Joanne Ryder.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-7-- Twenty Chinese folktales, selected and retold by Yep from those collected in the 1930s in the Oakland Chinatown as part of a WPA project. His introduction helps children to see the Chinese workers, gathered in a shack after their day of "hot, grueling work," telling stories to pass the time before sleep comes. Each section is prefaced by a short explanation of how the tales might relate to the Chinese-American experience. Yep retells the stories simply and directly, attempting to use his own voice while preserving the "spirit and spare beauty" of the original tales. He does this by weaving bits of rich description into short, clear telling. The tales, while drawn from and depicting Chinese culture, present a variety of familiar motifs and types: wizards and saints, shape changing and magical objects, pourquoi tales and lessons. An "Afterword" provides suggestions for further reading on Chinese folktales. This is an excellent introduction to Chinese and Chinese-American folklore that reads aloud well, that will provide little-known tales for telling, and that is simple enough for older children to read by themselves. --Constance A. Mellon, Department of Library & Information Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0060267607
• ISBN 13: 9780060267605
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 194
• Illustrator: Wiesner David