The Junior Thunder Lord - Softcover

Yep, Laurence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816734550 ISBN 13: 9780816734559

Publisher: Troll Communications Llc, 1996

Synopsis

Yue, a Chinese merchant, discovers the wisdom in passing along kindness, when Bear Face, the huge hairy man Yue has befriended, saves his life

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3-When Yue was young and not doing well in school, the smartest boy helped him out, saying, "Those at the top should help those at the bottom." Yue becomes a merchant when he grows up and he lives by those words, but never so much as when he leaves his drought-stricken home to find new customers. He encounters a huge man called Bear Face, who is an outcast among the people. Yue is kind to him; in return, Bear Face rescues Yue from drowning. Yue insists that Bear Face accompany him home, where the man reveals himself as a junior thunder lord and repays Yue's kindness with rain. Yep is a skillful storyteller, and his text is simple and effective. The characters are multifaceted; when Bear Face reveals his identity, he does not lose his sense of humor or his mild irreverence for convention. There are no surprises here. Anyone with a grasp of folk tale conventions knows that Bear Face isn't what he seems, but the tale remains satisfying. Van Nutt's cartoonlike pictures are bold and bright, with vibrant colors and nice details, and the cover illustration of Yue huddling in fear before the restored junior thunder lord is enticing. The quality of the artwork is undercut, however, by the lack of variation in the basic features of all but the main characters. While this detracts somewhat from the book, the story is well written and will appeal to a wide audience.
Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Ages 5-8. As a struggling student, Yue is helped by a friend who remarks, "Those at the top should help those at the bottom." Years later, as a merchant traveling far from his drought-stricken home, Yue generously buys a meal for Bear Face, a hungry, comically gauche stranger. Bear Face gratefully follows Yue everywhere, saving his life during a storm at sea and finally returning with him to Yue's parched village. Citing the proverb that began the story, Bear Face reveals his true identity--Junior Thunder Lord--and beckons the sky dragons to rain upon his friend's land. From then on, the "village always had all the rain it needed. And when it was pouring the hardest, Yue and his wife would go outside to wave up at their friend as he drove his storm clouds overhead." Yep's spare, crisp language gracefully defers to the dynamic story line, and Van Nutt's striking illustrations. Using the smooth, round lines of caricature and a palette of deep jewel colors, Van Nutt evokes both modernity and antiquity--a fine balance for a seventeenth-century tale with a twentieth-century message. Julie Yates Walton

About this edition

• Publisher: Troll Communications Llc
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0816734550
• ISBN 13: 9780816734559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Van Nutt Robert