Vietnamese Folktales for Children: Stories of Adventure and Wonder in Vietnamese and English

Gr 1-3–This collection of traditional folktales exposes readers to the parade of morality stories involving talking animals, mythical beings, and people in ancient bucolic Vietnam. With the strong dose of fantasy and the time period of pre-industrial Vietnam, the artwork looks like a blend of watercolor and colored pencil that form two-dimensional, realistic illustrations with little shadow—a traditional Vietnamese art style. Because the stories are written with roughly 60–100 words per paragraph, the book may be more suitable for reading aloud than for independent readers. The lessons learned in this book are universal: importance of friendship and gratitude, never judge a book by its cover, and goal setting. Each story starts out with a full-page drawing with opening text appearing in English in black serif type; the second page has artwork and an opening text in Vietnamese in a red sans serif. Subsequent pages have alternating paragraphs of black text and for English and red text for Vietnamese, with full-color illustrations. In the story of “The Carp and the Dragon’s Gate,” the Jade Emperor—seen as a white-haired, bearded man on a throne with the sun’s rays behind, over layers of clouds and rain falling over rice fields—is declaring a contest for the next Rain Dragon. All the world’s fishes arrive at the gates of the Jade Emperor’s palace to compete, only to fail. On the 10th day, a yellow carp appears that can complete the obstacle course. The collection includes a recording of both the English and the Vietnamese text; the English is read in an American accent and the Vietnamese is read with a Northern Vietnamese accent.