Demi's Reflective Fables

Retells thirteen traditional Chinese fables and provides a mylar front jacket flap with which to reflect the stories' illustrations

PreSchool-Grade 5 Demi takes the traditions of the Chinese mirror and brings them to an unusual format with great success. These 13 brief fables, which vary widely in theme, including friendship, self-esteem, and vanity, are told with just the proper mix of intriguing and accessible language, and are set in a circle of designs which complement the facing illustration. These main illustrations include whirling orange-yellow butterflies, a regal lavendar phoenix, and a mysterious teal-and-cocoa weasel. The illustrations' circular borders never cramp or confine, but rather enhance the premise of a mirror. Indeed, a mylar mirror is provided on an extended jacket flap so that readers might experiment and actually reflect the pictures; it will no doubt deteriorate with use, but the charm is in the illustrations themselves. They are so varied and graceful that readers will find themselves poring over them, making new discoveries again and again. The fables would make excellent and novel read-alouds, the illustrations will enchant those who cannot read yet, and older readers will be intrigued by the lore of the mirror as well as the morals of the tales. A book with much to reflect upon that is certain to have just as many readers as reflections. Joanna G. Jones, formerly at Hunterdon County Library, Flemington,
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.