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A review by gymnerdreader
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie
4.0
Annotated Bibliography Entry: Yeh Shen: A Cinderella Story from China retold by Ai-Ling Louie
Summary:
Yeh Shen is the beautiful daughter of the late Chief Wu and one of his wives whom died shortly after Yeh was born. Yeh grows up as an orphan with her step mother and step sister who are both jealous of her for being more beautiful, than both of them. She is always given the unpleasant, grueling chores around the house and she lives a very sheltered lifestyle. She has no friends except a fish, but that quickly ends when the step mother stabs the fish and cooks it for dinner out of spite. The only thing devastated Yeh has left is the bones of the fish that was left behind. The bones turn out to be magical and grant Yeh anything she could possibly want. When the spring festival comes up, Yeh wishes she could attend and magical bones turn her rags into riches. She attends the festival where everyone is stunned by how beautiful she is, however she gets nervous and leaves afraid her step mother and step sister will recognize her. In haste, she leaves behind a golden slipper, which is eventually sold to the King who orders a manhunt of sorts to find the rightful owner of the slipper. Eventually, Yeh goes to the pavilion to try on the shoe and it fits her perfectly. She takes it back with her and the King eventually locates her. They are married and the step mother and step sister end up being crushed to death by stones.
Personal Response:
This story is entirely different from the original Cinderella and even the fragmented Cinderella that I read. In terms of the traditional story it is almost a completely different story in and of itself. There are some similarities, such as the mean step mothers and step sisters (though the ones in this version are much nastier than the ones in the traditional, they are abusive) and making Cinderella (Yeh Shen) do all the chores. I like that this is a completely different version because it comes off as more cultural to me. They mentioned the Spring Festival being a gathering where women go and meet the man they hope to marry. It all comes across as being extremely cultural and I like that. I especially like the fish because I know the fish is big in Chinese culture with the zodiac symbols and such. Definitely like the cultural aspect of this one. You can tell it was passed from generations to generations. It reads as such!
Descriptions of Illustrations:
In terms of illustrations, there is not much to look at. This book doesn't have big, vibrant pictures that draw you in and take up the entire page. The pictures here are much more obscure in the sense that it is often hard to tell what they are depicting. The pictures are pretty much just shades of color. It is hard to tell what/who it is exactly, but I liked it. The illustrator used nice juxtapositions of contrasting colors and that made the pictures stand out a little bit. I do think that these illustrations might not be appealing for some kids, but it may be appealing to older kids who are starting to read more chapter books and less picture books.
Classroom Connections:
I wanted to mention that I think this book would be best to share with older students as I feel the story line for this one would go over the younger kids' heads. They may not be able to understand the story as well. A teacher could use this book as a way of comparing various versions of Cinderella, such as the traditional tale and the even the fragmented tale of Cinder Edna. They make a venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two stories. There are definitely things to contrast as this version is completely different from the traditional. Students could also compare and contrast character traits of the characters in this version to the ones in other versions. For example, in my opinion the step mother is worse to Yeh Shen than the step mother is in other versions of Cinderella I have read. The one in this version is just abusive. I think this would be a good center idea as well and teachers could set up different centers where students could get time reading other versions of Cinderella and doing activities for each. This is much like what we did in class and I think that is something teachers could do for older students to examine traditional literature, such as this one.
Summary:
Yeh Shen is the beautiful daughter of the late Chief Wu and one of his wives whom died shortly after Yeh was born. Yeh grows up as an orphan with her step mother and step sister who are both jealous of her for being more beautiful, than both of them. She is always given the unpleasant, grueling chores around the house and she lives a very sheltered lifestyle. She has no friends except a fish, but that quickly ends when the step mother stabs the fish and cooks it for dinner out of spite. The only thing devastated Yeh has left is the bones of the fish that was left behind. The bones turn out to be magical and grant Yeh anything she could possibly want. When the spring festival comes up, Yeh wishes she could attend and magical bones turn her rags into riches. She attends the festival where everyone is stunned by how beautiful she is, however she gets nervous and leaves afraid her step mother and step sister will recognize her. In haste, she leaves behind a golden slipper, which is eventually sold to the King who orders a manhunt of sorts to find the rightful owner of the slipper. Eventually, Yeh goes to the pavilion to try on the shoe and it fits her perfectly. She takes it back with her and the King eventually locates her. They are married and the step mother and step sister end up being crushed to death by stones.
Personal Response:
This story is entirely different from the original Cinderella and even the fragmented Cinderella that I read. In terms of the traditional story it is almost a completely different story in and of itself. There are some similarities, such as the mean step mothers and step sisters (though the ones in this version are much nastier than the ones in the traditional, they are abusive) and making Cinderella (Yeh Shen) do all the chores. I like that this is a completely different version because it comes off as more cultural to me. They mentioned the Spring Festival being a gathering where women go and meet the man they hope to marry. It all comes across as being extremely cultural and I like that. I especially like the fish because I know the fish is big in Chinese culture with the zodiac symbols and such. Definitely like the cultural aspect of this one. You can tell it was passed from generations to generations. It reads as such!
Descriptions of Illustrations:
In terms of illustrations, there is not much to look at. This book doesn't have big, vibrant pictures that draw you in and take up the entire page. The pictures here are much more obscure in the sense that it is often hard to tell what they are depicting. The pictures are pretty much just shades of color. It is hard to tell what/who it is exactly, but I liked it. The illustrator used nice juxtapositions of contrasting colors and that made the pictures stand out a little bit. I do think that these illustrations might not be appealing for some kids, but it may be appealing to older kids who are starting to read more chapter books and less picture books.
Classroom Connections:
I wanted to mention that I think this book would be best to share with older students as I feel the story line for this one would go over the younger kids' heads. They may not be able to understand the story as well. A teacher could use this book as a way of comparing various versions of Cinderella, such as the traditional tale and the even the fragmented tale of Cinder Edna. They make a venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two stories. There are definitely things to contrast as this version is completely different from the traditional. Students could also compare and contrast character traits of the characters in this version to the ones in other versions. For example, in my opinion the step mother is worse to Yeh Shen than the step mother is in other versions of Cinderella I have read. The one in this version is just abusive. I think this would be a good center idea as well and teachers could set up different centers where students could get time reading other versions of Cinderella and doing activities for each. This is much like what we did in class and I think that is something teachers could do for older students to examine traditional literature, such as this one.