The Magic Ear

When a gardener for a Japanese nobleman saves the life of a small fish, he ventures into the world of a sea king where he is rewarded with a conch shell which enables him to understand the language of animals and restore health to his employer's daughter. When a gardener for a Japanese nobleman saves the life of a small fish, he ventures into the world of a sea king where he is rewarded with a conch shell which enables him to understand the language of animals and restore health to his employer's daughter

Gr 2-6--Hoderi, a poor, honest gardener for a Japanese nobleman, saves the life of a small fish, who turns out to be a sea princess. When the sea king presses him to accept a reward, he modestly asks for a conch shell he sees in the palace. This is the magic ear that enables him to understand the language of animals, restore the health of his employer's daughter, and ultimately cross class barriers to marry her (though readers are never told what her thoughts or feelings are). Not quite an original story and not quite a folktale, this is is a pastiche of ``The Magic Listening Cap'' (see Yoshiko Uchida's The Magic Listening Cap [Creative Arts, 1987]), with rescue and reward motifs from other folk literature. The story works well in Langston's warm, cadenced prose. Folklorists may carp at the conflation, as may naturalists at some of the details (e.g., Hoderi's mode of transport to the sea kingdom is a freshwater fish). The setting is attractively evoked in Bosson's autumnal watercolors. They are heavily indebted to Edo print masters Sharaku and the 19th-century ``Decadents,'' but touches of Hiroshige, Hokusai, and even Kiyonaga can be detected. The pictures portray the salient episodes of the story as well as things children would want to see. A largely successful hybrid.

John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.