A king and queen should be full of joy and contentment, but they both feel a strange pain that worsens every day. Then a peddler's magic spectacles reveal a red thread pulling at each of their hearts. The king and queen know they must follow the thread.
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Grace Lin has illustrated over twenty books for children, many of which she has also written. They include the Ling & Ting series and the novel The Year of the Dog. She lives in Massachusetts.
A king and queen should be full of joy and contentment, but they both feel a strange pain that worsens every day. Then a peddler's magic spectacles reveal a red thread pulling at each of their hearts. The king and queen know they must follow the thread.
PreSchool-Grade 3—Lin offers a contemporary fairy tale, using a story within a story to weave in a Chinese belief that "an invisible, unbreakable red thread connects all who are destined to be together." It begins with an Asian girl, who looks no older than five, asking her Caucasian parents to read a favorite story "again," thus introducing the main story: a royal couple both suffer a mysterious pain in their chests that nothing can remedy or explain, until a peddler gives them magic spectacles that allow them to see a red thread bound tightly around their hearts. They follow its loose end for days, crossing a sea, the pain gradually easing, until they reach a small village in a foreign land and find a gurgling, smiling baby at the end. A wise old villager tells them, "This baby belongs to you." Bright illustrations and vivid language will likely appeal even to preschoolers, though some children will need to have the connection to adopting a baby from China made more explicit through additional discussion. Karen Acres's Little Miss Ladybug & Her Magical Red Thread (Ladybug, 2003) also deals with this theme. This lovely book has general appeal, but it's particularly suitable for patrons requesting adoption titles, and especially transracial adoption of children from China.—Deborah Vose, Highlands Elementary School, Braintree, MA
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