White Wave: A Chinese Tale

From School Library Journal Kindergarten-Grade 3. A well-told Chinese folktale, first published in 1979 (Crowell), has been reissued with a handsome new jacket and a few changes in the text. The moon goddess, White Wave, appears in the form of a moon snail to keep house for a poor farmer. When he discovers her in human form, she ascends to heaven in awesome glory, but promises to return in his hour of need. Wolkstein has added an author's note to this version, made some editorial changes, and given the farmer a name. Young's black-and-white pencil drawings, repeating the spiraling moon snail motif while poignantly evoking the farmer's loss and White Wave's majesty, come to the new edition unchanged. They are now printed on matte paper with red borders and subtle illuminations of silver and look slightly more dramatic than they did in the earlier edition. Libraries with a clean copy of the older version may not need this new one. Those with a demand for authentic Chinese stories to read aloud will value a second chance to purchase this title.?Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Wolkstein (Esther's Story, 1996, etc.) revisits an exquisite Chinese folktale she first published in 1979. The poor, solitary farmer of the original tale now has a name: Kuo Ming. He finds an opalescent shell and takes it home. The next evening, his dinner is waiting for him when he returns from the fields. He wonders how this happens, and, by spying, he discovers a woman of light, the moon goddess, who lives in the shell; he knows he must not touch her. In the way of such things, he cannot resist doing so, and thus loses her, but she leaves him her name, White Wave, and a promise that she keeps. He builds a shrine to her and tells his children the tale. When he dies, the shell is lost; the shrine, in time, disappears. ``All that remained was the story.'' The changes in the text may be too subtle to justify purchasing this newly designed edition where the old one is still available; Young's spare black-and-white pencil illustrations, with their gorgeous use of negative space, are unchanged. Still, where copies are tattered, or for those who missed it the first time around, this is a beautiful volume. (Picture book/folklore. 3-7) --