Bronze & Sunflower - Softcover

Cao Wenxuan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1406348465 ISBN 13: 9781406348460

Publisher: Penguin Group Books

Synopsis

Bronze and Sunflower

About this title

About the Author:

Cao Wenxuan is one of China's most important children's writers and is widely considered the country's most subtle and philosophical, often referred to as China's very own Hans Christian Andersen. He is a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, and has in turn taught some of China's best young writers. Many of his books have been bestsellers, including Thatched Cottage and Red Gourd, and his work has been translated into French, Russian, Japanese, Korean and English. Cao has won several of China's most prestigious awards for children's literature, including the Song Qingling and Bing Xin prizes, and is current winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Helen Wang has a BA Hons in Chinese from SOAS and is currently a Curator of East Asian Money at the British Museum. She has written and edited numerous books and articles and has been translating from Chinese to English for nearly 25 years, including, for children, Jackal and Wolf by SHEN Shixi and Pai Hua Zi and the Clever Girl by Zhang Xinxin. She lives with her family in north London.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 5–8—Quiet and gentle Sunflower is a bit lonely but content with her simple life in rural China during the Cultural Revolution. When she is orphaned by a storm, Sunflower and Bronze, a mute boy a few years older whose family takes her in, become steadfast friends who share adventures with the family's hardworking water buffalo. The story portrays the roles of men and women as befits the 1960–70s setting; men's shoes are "sturdy" while women's are "pretty." Bronze looks after "timid" Sunflower, protecting her from a bully, forgoing his schooling so that she can attend, and making sure she gets the best seat at the fireworks display. Life takes place largely outdoors: driving ducks, gathering reeds, and taking "lucky mushrooms" to market. Emily Woo Zeller narrates with authentic inflection on Chinese words and phrases. Occasionally Sunflower's cries of distress come across as shrill, but Bronze, family, and neighbors quickly lend a hand. VERDICT The writing and narration are lovely, yet the traditional role portrayals and agricultural setting may not have wide appeal. The chapters of adventure are separated by descriptions of selling shoes at a market, and netting ducks in a pond. Some chapters could work in a social studies or folk tale curriculum.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group Books
• ISBN 10: 1406348465
• ISBN 13: 9781406348460
• Binding: Paperback