Yeh- Shen

Yeh-Shen
Louie, Ai-ling
Young, Ed
Putnam and Grosset Group NY, NY (1982)
Fairy Tale, Traditional Literature, Multicultural
k-3

Yeh-Shen is the orphaned daughter of a chief. Her father and her mother's death meant that she must live with her mean and spiteful stepmother and stepsister. They did what ever they could to make Yeh-Shen's life miserable. She only had one friend in the whole world. This friend was a fish that swam in the pond near her home. The fish was very wise and comforted Yeh-Shen. She hid the fish from her stepmother out of fear of what she might do. Her stepmother found out about the fish and killed it out of spite. Yeh-Shen was devastated and kept the remains of the fish. The fish bones still held the fish's magical spirit and he was able to help Yeh-Shen with her wish to go to the festival where her stepsisters hoped to find a husband. Her stepmother forbid her to go to the festival because she did not want her to over shadow her daughters. The fish bones transformed her old ragged clothes into beautiful silk robes and golden slippers. The fish warned her not to lose the slippers and off she wen to the festival. All of the people were in awe of Yeh-Shens beauty but she was forced to flee when her stepsister became suspicious about her identity. Yeh-Shen ran so fast that she lost one of the Gold slippers. Yeh-Shen's beautiful clothing vanished and so did the fish's soul. She was once again devastated by the loss of her friend. The lost golden slipper was found and made it's way to the king. He was enchanted by the tiny shoe and he wanted to find the woman that the shoe belonged to. Many women came to try on the slipper including the stepsisters, but no one has feet tiny enough to fit into the slipper. Yeh-Shen snick out to get the shoe after the crowd of women left. The king discovered that the Yeh-Shen was the woman he had been searching for. She married the king and lived a very happy life but her step family were crushed by a rock slide.

This is a Chinese version of the Cinderella story. This version serves as a good tool to expose students to the Chinese culture but it is far from my favorite version. The author did not do a great job of tugging at my emotions. I did not feel the sympathy for Yeh-Shen as I did for Vasilisa and the Rough Faced Girl. To me, this tale was just a tale not a story of someone that could have really lived. She did not show the selflessness that the others showed. Despite this concern I thing I would use tis version as a part of a Cinderella unit. I think that this book, along with the others, would be a good way to get students to research the history of monarchs in each of the Cinderella tales. Each of the tales speak of the leader of that culture's nation. The students could research not only the monarchs themselves, but also those county's systems of government and how they might have changed trough time. This book could also be used to inform students of the Chinese culture, such as the importance of women having small feet. The kink was first stuck by how tiny Yeh-Shen's feet were.

The illustrations were painted in watercolor within a block design which was quite fitting for this Asian tale. I like block illustrations because they make the illustrations seem as though they are snapshots in time like a slide show. I liked the color combination that Young chose. He used a lot of pastels that were calming and gave the reader assurance that the story would end well. The Illustrations were very beautiful but I do feel that the story could have stood alone without them because they failed to capture the emotion in the story.