Book Reviews: Book Review of Yeh-Shen, by Ai-Ling Louie -- Blue Rectangle

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Yeh-Shen

Ai-Ling Louie

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Yeh-Shen Ai-Ling Louie This is “Yeh-Shen,” a Cinderella story from China. I am the mother of two little girls, two and four years old. And I’m also half-Chinese so I was intrigued to buy a princess, fairy tale story that was based in Chinese culture. Although the essential plot is the same as the European “Cinderella” story, it’s over a thousand years older than the European “Cinderella.” It’s about Yeh-Shen who is the daughter of an ancient cave chief and his first wife. And when the cave chief and the wife pass away, she becomes, she comes under the care of the second wife. And who is very jealous of her because she’s much more beautiful and virtuous than her own daughter. She has only one friend who is a fish, a pet fish that no matter how little she gets, she makes sure that she feeds him. And he grows to enormous size and when her stepmother finds out about this, she kills the fish and serves him up for dinner, which of course is devastating to her. But, the spirit of the fish comes back to her as a wise old man and befriends her. And when it comes time for the spring festival where she’s hoping to go and meet a young man that she could marry like all the other young women, her stepmother keeps her at home and she kneels before the bones of the fish and says, you know is there some way that I could have a dress nice enough to go? It’s beautifully illustrated in four panel Chinese style, like the four seasons. And there is kind of a legend, poetic quality to the writing of it. And I actually found it a couple of times when I’ve been reading it I get kind of choked up almost. I would give this, five stars. I liked everything about it. I would recommend it to any little girls and their mothers who are interested in the princess fairy tale kinds of stories, especially one that is based in another culture besides the Disney culture.