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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | 398.2 Mahy | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lyons Public Library | E/K MAH | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | JNF 398.2 MAHY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | 398.2 Mahy 1989 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A magnificently illustrated and authentic retelling of the classic Chinese folktale of the seven brothers and their supernatural gifts. "Exceptional." - School Library Journal, starred review
Author Notes
Margaret Mahy was born on March 21, 1936 in Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. She received a B.A. degree from the University of New Zealand. She worked as a nurse, an assistant librarian, and a children's librarian in England and New Zealand. Her first book, A Lion in the Meadow, was published in 1969. She became a full-time author in 1980. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 120 children's books including The Haunting, The Changeover, Memory, The Seven Chinese Brothers, The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate and A Summery Saturday Morning. She won the Esther Glen Award five times, the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association three times, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Hans Christian Andersen Award, and in 1999, she won the New Zealand Post Children's Book Award in two categories, Picture Book and Supreme Award. She died after a brief illness on July 23, 2012 at the age of 76.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-- The seven brothers walk, talk, and look alike, but each has his own special power. When the third brother runs afoul of the emperor and is sentenced to be beheaded, the fourth brother, who has bones of iron, takes his place. The emperor then tries drowning and burning but each time a different brother foils his scheme. Mahy retells this traditional Chinese tale in graceful, witty prose. She uses classic storytelling elements to their best advantage and, without any attempt to imitate Chinese syntax, her choice of words gives a feeling of time and place. Both jacket notes and an editor's foreword give background information about the tale. Beginning with the cover, which shows the smiling brothers looming over a cowering emperor, the Tsengs' rich watercolors complement and enhance the story. With great skill, they interweave elements of ancient Chinese painting with lively pictorial storytelling. The emperor, encased in voluminous ceremonial robes, is an embodiment of corrupt yet insecure power, and the beautiful faces of the seven brothers, although alike, glow with life. Many readers will be familiar with the classic Claire Bishop/Kurt Wiese version of the The Five Chinese Brothers (Coward-McCann, 1938). The style of both text and illustrations is so different from the Mahy/Tseng book that comparisions are inappropriate. An exceptional new telling of the story. --Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In colorful language well suited to a story of ingenuity and valor, Mahy presents the Chinese folktale about brothers with amazing powers. Although the broad outline is the same as The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop, illustrated by Kurt Wiese (first published in 1938), Mahy's stirring retelling is very different from and just as good as the earlier effort. She has elaborated on the story, spicing it with more action and adding ironic humor. Replete with striking character portraits, the Tsengs' dramatic watercolors evoke the Orient and provide authentic, historical details. As in all fine picture books, text and illustrations blend, creating an inviting world for young readers and listeners and heightening the story's dramatic impact. Children will be caught up in the many narrow escapes and will benefit from the subtle lesson on the importance of working together. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Mahy retells the hero story of look-alike brothers who each possess a special physical ability. While lacking the humor, simplicity, and rhythm of Claire Bishop's 'Five Chinese Brothers' (Putnam), this rendition has a full-bodied elegance. The authentic watercolors display none of the stereotypes that make the Bishop illustrations so controversial. From HORN BOOK 1990, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The folk tale made familiar in Bishop's The Five Chinese Brothers (1938) is here in a more expansive version linking it to the tyrannical emperor who planned the Great Wall. In Mahy's nicely cadenced, economical telling, the different talents of the seven brothers are neatly woven into the story's fabric to make a pleasing variety in the events--which turn on the Wall and its construction--and to escalate the suspense; in the denouement, the callous emperor receives poetic justice when he is washed away by the youngest brother's tears. The Tsengs' attractive, realistic watercolors are beautifully evocative of the Chinese landscape, lively and humorous in depicting characters and action. Not a replacement for Bishop but a complement to it, for older children and with more authentic illustrations. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 5-8. Based on the same Chinese folk tale as Bishop's classic Five Chinese Brothers, this longer story has a different plot, but shares the motif of brother succeeding brother, their unique magical powers making various means of execution impossible. First Brother can hear a fly a hundred miles away on the Great Wall of China. Second Brother can see the fly. Third Brother is amazingly strong. Fourth Brother has bones of iron. Fifth Brother's legs can grow tall and thick, and so on. When First Brother and Second Brother report that the emperor's servants suffer as they rebuild a hole in the Great Wall, Third Brother strides off to their rescue. By rebuilding the structure, he incurs the Emperor's anger and the death sentence. Brother after brother comes to the rescue, until the Emperor and his minions are destroyed by a flood of Seventh Brother's tears. The handsome watercolor illustrations show a sensitivity to landscape and character portrayal (avoiding the controversy of the Bishop illustrations), a hint of humor, and a flair for the dramatic. Written with Mahy's accustomed storytelling skill, this book will find an eager audience as a read-aloud for elementary school children. --Carolyn Phelan