Fu Dog

The story of an English girl's search for her Chinese heritage. The embroidered satin Fu-Dog her great-uncle sends her from London's Chinatown enables Li-la to find her Chinese relatives and reconcile the English and Chinese sides of her family. Recommended.Li-la is determined to travel to London with her brother Malcolm, in order to visit the mysterious uncle who gave her Fu-dog, a tiny stuffed animal, and never forgets her birthday

Grade 1-4-- When a four-inch green satin Fu-dog arrives at the Smith house in Devon, a gift from Great Uncle, Malcolm declares it hideous, but his seven-year-old sister Li-la loves her latest birthday present from faraway London. Although her half-Chinese mother looks "like any English mum," and her brother is blonde, Li-la closely resembles the Chinese relations she has never met. Her father claims they are "too pernickity" for him, while her mother sighs that Dad is "too rough and ready" for them. Still, Li-la longs to know her Chinese grandmother's brother. Encouraged by conversations with the Fu-dog, Li-la persuades Malcolm to take her to London. Without their parents' knowledge, they make the train journey and manage, by great good fortune, to find Great Uncle's restaurant in London's Chinatown just as Chinese New Year celebrations begin. While Li-la's racial identity crisis is too easily solved, readers who like Godden's other oriental doll fantasies ( Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum both Penguin, 1987) will enjoy this shorter book. With warm, appealing illustrations and delicate borders on every page, Fu-Dog most resembles Gooden's The Story of Holly and Ivy (Penguin, 1985) , its nostalgic flavor spiced with a dash of the pleasantly exotic. --Margaret A. Chang, Buxton School, Williamstown, MA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As exotic as spice from the Orient and as British as afternoon tea, Godden's story of the Fu-dog celebrates hope, love and a child's imagination. With the gift of a satin toy dog, Li-la's Great Uncle sets in motion the events that will eventually reconcile the two halves of the seven-year-old's family in London's Chinatown. Only Li-la can hear the Fu-dog speak--until she journeys to London where her skeptical brother Malcolm is injured, the Fu-dog is lost and all is resolved by the children's mysterious uncle who restores Fu-dog to Li-la in the form of a "real" Peking puppy. Images echo like the voice of the Fu-dog in Godden's ( The Story of Holly and Ivy ) affectingly told and neatly plotted narrative. The story is central in this 64-page, six-chapter novella, but seems well suited to the picture book format in which Littlewood's vibrant full-color illustrations and artful blue line drawings enhance but never overshadow the text. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.