Title: "Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China"
Author: Ai-Ling Louie
Illustrator: Ed Young
Publisher: Puffin Books, 1982
Genre: fairy tale, multicultural
Grade: K-2
"Yeh-Shen" is the Chinese version of Cinderella, and is believed to have been the first Cinderella tale. Yeh-Shen is a little girl who has to live with her stepmother and her stepsister because her mother died. Because Yeh-Shen is much prettier than Stepmother's real daughter so she gives Yeh-Shen all the worst chores. Yeh-Shen's only friend is the fish so her stepmother stabs the fish. An old man appeared and told Yeh-Shen that the fish bones were magic and if she would kneel before them, she would receive her heart's desire. Yeh-Shen ends up going to the Festival but on her way home she loses one of the slippers. The King has the slipper placed in the middle of the Pavilion so every lady that comes through tries on the slipper. No one can wear it! Then Yeh-Shen shows up in the night and sneaks up and tries it on and sneaks it back home. The King goes to Yeh-Shen's house and they get married!
I had never heard this version of Cinderella before. I really enjoyed it though. I loved the illustrations that Ed Young included in this book. Ed Young has a very similar method of his illustrations that he put in "Lon Po Po." In "Lon Po Po" Young has a picture of the wolf in all the pictures. He also has most of the pages divided into different sections. This is the same in "Yeh-Shen." In the cover of "Yeh-Shen" you can see a picture of the fish and its fish scales on her body. On every page throuhout the book there is a picture of the fish. Some pictures the fish is easier to see than in others. Some of them you really have to search and look carefully at the picture to find the outline of the fish. I also think that Young divides his pictures up so the reader can look at each illistration carefully and see what is going on in the story. I think Young used watercolors to illustrate this book.
I would definitely use this book in my classroom one day. I would use it in a fairy tales unit. I think it would be interesting to have students read several different versions and have them to do a Venn-Diagram, or have older students to do a "I Poem with Two Voices." I also think it would be neat to have my students to compare "Yeh-Shen", the first Cinderella tale, with a more recent Cinderella tale like the Disney version or one of the newer ones. I think this would also be an ideal time to teach students about the different cultures. For example, we learn in "Yeh-Shen" that the Chinese have festivals to go find their future mates.
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16 comments:
What were your first thoughts about the text? What in the text caused those thoughts?
That the story will be about a fish getting realy big.The picture on the on the page and the title sounds like a big fishes name.
I though was that the story was going to be about a fish but it intended to be about a gril thats friend was a fish.
My first thought it was going to be about a fish,but it was about a girl and fish.
My first thought about the text was a china fish tale. Only about a magic little fish. But when i read the text it was about a girl named Yen-Shen and a magic fish
the part when the step-mother killed her fish made me mad because she had tricked the fish and killed her daughters friend
I thought that it was a CINDERELLA story. When the text says the step sister and mom go to the festival and leave the girl
When I was reading the story I felt a little frightend for Yeh-Shen because the step mothe killed the fish and I thouhgt that Yeh-Shen was next. Also I was a little confused because the fish was magic, and I Know it was a foktale but it still was a little confusing.
When I made my predicition I thought It would be about magical fish and it had nothing to with people. When I started reading I realized it was about a named Yeh-Shen. Who married a king and lived happily ever after.
when i made a prediction i thought her mom was very divious and sneaky for stealing her jacket and disguising herself as Yeh-shen and killing her fish for no reason at all.
I think that her mom was killing her fish because she does not want her step daughter to have a freind not even a fish,but she also helped her because her fish bones gave her hearts desire
my first thoughts were that yeh-shen's mom was jelluos because yeh-shen was so beautifull taht she decided that yeh-shen was too pretty that she should be punished by not having friends
Before I read the book I thought it was going to be about some kind of magical fish. When I actually read the book I found out that is was about a girl named Yeh-shen who had a fish as a friend.
WHEN I FIRST READ THE STORY I THOUGHT THAT THE STORY WAS ABOUT A CHINESE FISH.BUT WHEN I READ IT I FOUND OUT IT WAS ABOUT A GIRL WHO HAS A FISH AS A FRIEND.THE TEXT CAUSED THOSE THOUGHTS BECAUSE I SAW A FISH ON THE PICTURE WITH CHINESE WORDS OR LETTERS ON THE BOTTOM OF IT AND I THOUGHT THE FISHES NAME WAS YEH-SHEN.
WHEN I FIRST READ THE STORY I THOUGHT THAT THE STORY WAS ABOUT A CHINESE FISH.BUT WHEN I READ IT I FOUND OUT IT WAS ABOUT A GIRL WHO HAS A FISH AS A FRIEND.THE TEXT CAUSED THOSE THOUGHTS BECAUSE I SAW A FISH ON THE PICTURE WITH CHINESE WORDS OR LETTERS ON THE BOTTOM OF IT AND I THOUGHT THE FISHES NAME WAS YEH-SHEN.
Qhen I first read this book i thought it waz going to be about a giant japanese fish. But after I finished reading the book it was a bout a lilttle girl name yeh shen she always would go down to the pound and feed the fish.One day when her mom told her to go somewhere her mother took her coat and went down to the pound and stabed the fish and took it home to cook.I thought the book was okay but it couldve been a lilttle bit better to me. In the text diffrent parts had me to think diffrent things.Like when her mother came and killed the fish. It made me think her mother was a killer and mean.
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