Legend of the Chinese Dragon - Marie Sellier

Legend of the Chinese Dragon

By: Marie Sellier, Catherine Louis (Illustrator)

Hardcover | 1 January 2007

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In ancient China, the different tribes lived under the protection of benevolent spirits that took the form of animals--fish, ox, bird, horse, and serpent. But, as often happens, the tribes grew envious of each other and began to fight amongst themselves in the names of their spirits. The children decided to declare a war on war by creating a creature that combined the best of all the spirits and would protect all the people. To this day, the dragon is a symbol of peace and plays an especially important role in the celebration of the Chinese New Year. This timely message of cooperation and empowerment makes this book especially appealing to trade and institutional accounts. Communities with significant Chinese populations will also have a special interest in this title. Catherine Louis' Liu and the Bird was a critical hit with review journals, teachers, and librarians.
Industry Reviews
Writing in a tellable, folkloristic style, Sellier invents this "legend" to dovetail nicely with the importance of the dragon symbol in Chinese culture, but unfortunately provides no sources. In an earlier period of Chinese history, the tale says that different tribes were protected by animal spirits, representative of the species that lived in their regions, i.e., those that lived near the shore selected the fish, the low-plains people chose the horse and the people of the rice fields allied with the ox. The inhabitants of the high plains and the mountains invoked the serpent and the bird. The adults fought each other and used their spirits as rallying cries to support their aggression, but the children finally unite to stop war dead in its tracks by creating a new animal that all the people can believe in - the dragon with its serpentine body, fish-scale skin, horse-like head, ox horns and birds' wings. Woodcuts with strong black shapes and patches of red, blue, yellow, orange and green, black Chinese calligraphic text with accompanying chop marks in red denoting the names of the animals, and changing page designs combine to create a powerful visual experience. The last spread connects the story to the New Year celebrations, but some explanatory information would add depth to this bilingual English/Chinese story smoothly translated from the French original. (Picture book. 4-7) (Kirkus Reviews)

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