The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales

Author: Michael Bedard
Hardcover: 120 page(s)
Age Range: 10+

Book Description:

At about the time the Grimm Brothers were gathering their famous collection of folk stories and fairy tales in Europe, in China a similar collection of almost five hundred stories had just been compiled by the scholar Pu Sung-ling. Drawing on oral and written sources, he called his collection of the strange and wondrous Strange Tales form a Studio of Leisure.

The fruit of his life's work became immensely popular with storytellers who performed the stories in teahouses, where rapt audiences would sit for half a day drinking tea and listening to tales of ghosts, fox fairies, and other wonders.

Almost unkown in the West, the stories are given new life in this important work by the masterful Michael Bedard.

School Library Journal
Known as the Liao-chai, these enchanting stories were first collected by a scholar named Pu Sung-ling a century before the Grimms began their work in Europe. Wildly popular in China but little known in the West, they draw on the supernatural or unusual to cast their spell. For example, in "Planting a Pear Tree," a greedy fruit vendor watches his wares magically disappear after he refuses to give a poor Taoist priest a pear. In "The Tiger of Chao-cheng," the featured animal takes care of an old woman whose son he had killed, providing for her throughout her remaining days, and then grieving fiercely when she dies. In "The Glass Eyes," a boy steals from a temple and must make amends when he figures out that his uncle is being punished for his deed. In "The Painted Wall," a young man finds himself in great bliss and in grave danger when he somehow becomes part of a picture. The stories are short and accessible to reluctant readers. An author's note provides a bit of history. Add this title if your folktale collection needs some interesting stories with an Asian flavor.

Booklist
Three-hundred years before the Grimm brothers created their famous volumes, Pu Sung-ling, a Chinese scholar, collected more than 500 folktales from his native land. The book, The Liao-chai, remains one of the most popular books in Chinese literature. In this welcome collection, Bedard, known for lyrical picture books such as Emily (1993), offers stories from The Liao-chai that are dramatic yet brief; most are only a few pages long. Readers will find exciting tales of the supernatural in which restless ghosts chase travelers, a magician fits a houseful of servants in the sleeves of his robe, and several men find love with spirit wives. In an introduction about Pu Sung-ling's life, Bedard mentions that the stories have their roots in classical Chinese literature. Children will enjoy the stories' rich language, thrilling action, and vividly described Chinese culture, and some may recognize echoes of familiar Western tales, such as Johnny Appleseed, and even Biblical stories among the universal themes. Great for readers' theater or language arts courses.