I See the Sun in China

#92 of one zillion

Author: Dedie King
Illustrator: Judith Inglese
Publisher: Satya House Publications (2010)

I See the Sun in China is a very nice look into the day of a young girl as she travels to Shanghai from her village to visit her aunt.

We had a lot of fun reading this book. It is not an action packed book with conflict, climax and resolution, this is just not that kind of book. It is, literally, a day in the life of the narrator, and that is OK.

Visually, we found the book interesting. First, the illustrations are a mixture of paper cutouts, pictures and drawings. Second, the text on each page is in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Now, none of us can read a lick of Mandarin, but just having those characters there helped set the atmosphere of reading about China.

The day in the life of the little girl narrating was something we all found compelling. A few lessons were taken out of reading this book. People may live all the way across the globe, speak a different language, and have a different culture, but we are similar in a lot of ways; we all wake up to the same sun, we all go to shopping malls sometimes, we all care about our families.

The parts where we differ were fun too. While we all agreed that we would probably pass on the shrimp and fish congee for breakfast, we wouldn't mind a foot rub before bed, or having lunch at the park where people brought their lucky crickets with them.

I would recommend I See the Sun in China to anyone looking to introduce different cultures to their young ones.

My score: 8 points

My daughter's score: thumb up

My son's score: thumb up

One Zillion Books was provided with a review copy of I See the Sun in China by Satya House Publications. The fact that a sample copy was provided, in no way influences our opinions of the book.