I Am Hua Mulan

A girl retells the story of the legendary female warrior she admires, who long ago fought bravely to protect her people. Hua Mulan learned from her father to ride horses and fight with a spear. When her people were under attack, the army needed more men. To spare her ailing father, Mulan disguised herself as a man and rode off to war. Mulan’s bravery and skills won her wide acclaim, but her true identity was never revealed. When the war ended, Mulan returned home to find her family safe and happy.

Qin Wenjun was born in Shanghai in 1954. She expresses her conviction that all children are worthy of being portrayed in her famous quote, “Each and every child is an irreplaceable miracle.” The beauty and innocence she depicts in her works are impossible for children themselves to put into literature and too often forgotten by adults. She has served as the President of the China-Japan Children’s Literature and Fine Arts Exchange Association, promoting awareness of children’s literature and ne arts between the two countries. In 2008, in Shanghai, she founded the Shanghai Board on Books for Young People (SHBBY), a branch of CBBY whose members include over a hundred writers and illustrators from that city.

Born in China, Yu Rong first trained as a primary school teacher, and then studied for a B.A. in Chinese Painting and Contemporary Art Design (Nanjing Normal University’s Art College) and an M.A. in Communication and Design (Royal College of Art, London). She now lives near Cambridge in the United Kingdom.