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The Story of Chopsticks

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Learn how the three fun-loving Kang brothers created chopsticks, one of China's most famous inventions! This colorfully redesigned edition features a new bilingual Chinese translation.
The three playful and creative Kang brothers (Ting, Pan, and Kùai) discovered four of China's most famous discoveries in the series Amazing Chinese Inventions. In this adventure, the youngest boy Kùai never gets enough to eat. One day Kùai comes up with a plan: he is inspired to use sticks to grab food quickly while it's too hot for Ting and Pan. What will his family think?
When the Kang family attends a wedding banquet, Kai brings his chopsticks... to everyone's great surprise! When the whole village finds out, then what will the Emperor think? The story features an author's note on the history of chopsticks and a delicious dessert recipe, ideal for eating with chopsticks.

This fanciful blend of fact and imagination brings Asian culture alive for young readers. Children will enjoy the bright and bold artwork, created in the traditional Chinese style of hand cut, colored paper. Parents will enjoy the ingenuity of the main characters who teach adults a thing or two about inventiveness.
Teachers and librarians like the storybook's historical references and how it features a bilingual translation in simplified Chinese - ideal for language classes, programs, and schools.
"Like the hues in a stained glass window, [the illustrations] look brilliant...this well-designed book will please children in the primary grades."
- ALA Booklist

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"Like the hues in a stained glass window, [the illustrations] look brilliant...this well-designed book will please children in the primary grades."—ALA Booklist

This series, recounting how the creative Kang brothers discovered four of China's famed inventions, is redesigned to feature new bilingual simplified Chinese translations.

Wanting more to eat, Kùai is inspired to use sticks to grab food quickly while it's too hot for Ting and Pan. When his family attends a wedding banquet, Kùai brings his chopsticks... to everyone's great surprise!

Ying Chang Compestine lives near San Francisco, California.

YongSheng Xuan, a graduate of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, lives in Vancouver, Canada.

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  • Reviews

    • School Library Journal

      May 1, 2016

      Gr 1-3-Originally published in the early 2000s, these amusing fictional "origin stories" for four ancient Chinese inventions are reissued in a handsome duo-lingual edition. Set against a nondescript "long ago" China, the tales are not meant to be historically accurate. Instead, they are to encourage curiosity about the famous inventions, demonstrating how necessity could have inspired someone to create solutions to daily inconveniences. The three spirited and playful Kang brothers take young readers on four lighthearted journeys, getting into scrapes, finding ingenious ways to get themselves out of trouble, and each time "accidentally inventing" one of the most well-known Chinese cultural objects along the way. The elegantly colorful cut paper-style illustrations are perfect echoes to a Chinese folk art form. Each book features an author's note with an explanation of the title invention's origin and cultural significance, as well as a text-relevant project. The translation team did top-notch work in transforming the stories into highly readable and sophisticated Chinese texts. Since there are no phonetic markings (pinyin) or glossary for the Chinese characters and expressions, the Chinese text is best suited for fluent native readers. An advanced Chinese learner could also handle most of the text but might find it a struggle to look up some of the less familiar phrases.

      Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2016
      In bilingual editions of these original tales (Chinese texts not evaluated), the clever Kang brothers tackle various challenges: eating hot food (Chopsticks), scaring birds from their rice fields (Kites), salvaging their mother's botched cooking-contest entry (Noodles), and saving face at school (Paper). Bold images, reminiscent of traditional Chinese cut-paper designs, illustrate the tales. An author's note provides brief history of each invention. Recipe/activity appended.

      (Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:580
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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