A grain of rice. This item is unavailable.A grain of rice

A clever, cheerful, hard-working farmer's son wins the hand of a Chinese princess by outwitting her father the Emperor, who treasures his daughter more than all the rice in China.

Grade 3-8 An original story set on the grounds and in the palace of the Emperor of China during the 15th Century. Pong Lo, the son of a farmer, kneels in the Emperor's court to ask for his majesty's daughter's hand in marriage. Employed as a storeroom worker, Pong Lo sets about to prove that he is ``wise and quick and more than a little clever, and would make. . .as fine a prince as China has ever seen.'' Pittman invites readers into her story through her choice of concrete objects (e.g., the Imperial Storeroom), sensory images, and universal messages. She borrows from the motifs of oral literature, and also weaves in information about arithmetical progression and 15th-Century Chinese people, patterns, and traditions. Pittman's well executed pencil drawings ooze with emotion, and there is a fusion of text and illustrations. A picture book that is wise and humorous, and one to be perused and savored.Shelley G. McNamara, University of Maine, Farmington
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.