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The Cricket Warrior: A Chinese Tale
In order to save his family, a Chinese boy turns into a fighting cricket and becomes the emperor's champion.
- GenresPicture Books
Hardcover
First published September 1, 1994
About the author
Margaret Chang
7 books2 followers“Long ago, when I was sitting in my high chair in California having breakfast, my mother used to think, ‘The boy Margaret’s going to marry is somewhere eating his cornflakes.’ Little did she know.
“I grew up as an only child in Whittier, a suburb of Los Angeles, surrounded by people like my parents—transplanted Middle Westerners. Just beyond Whittier’s city limits stretched a vast, intriguing, multicultural city. I was five when we went downtown to eat Chinese food at Tang’s. It tasted a lot better than my mother’s Indiana cooking, and I still remember the small dish of yellow mustard with a drop of bright red hot sauce in the middle.
“My parents took me to the beach whenever they could, beginning my lifelong love of the Pacific shore. Another family pleasure was reading. Every night before bedtime, my father read aloud to me. I met Dorothy Gale, Robin Hood, Mowgli, D’Artagnan, Jo March, and brave, determined children from the Grimm and Andersen fairy tales. Later, reading on my own, I discovered Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, and Anna Karenina. But I never stopped reading children’s books.
“After graduating from Scripps College with a degree in English and a minor in art, I went east to library school at Rutgers to become a children’s librarian. I worked as an elementary school librarian for the Lexington Public Schools in Massachusetts and as a children’s librarian for the New York Public Library. I met Raymond Chang, the boy who’d been eating his rice porridge in Shanghai while I was having breakfast in my high chair in California. We married at my home in Whittier and moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, where Raymond taught chemistry at Williams College for many years. We have one daughter. With her, I returned to the West Coast for yearly visits with my parents and our Chinese family.
“A master’s degree from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College enabled me to pursue two parallel careers: writing and teaching. While Raymond and I coauthored four children’s books set in China, I taught both graduate and undergraduate students of children’s literature at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams. The Institutes offered by Children’s Literature New England (CLNE) inspired my teaching for twenty years.
“After taking a long break from teaching to finish Celia’s Robot, I expect to continue writing stories and promoting children’s literature for many years to come.”
How Celia’s Robot Came to Be:
“I was thirteen when I discovered science fiction. Even though the characters were mostly active guys and helpless girls (because the books were written mostly by men), I loved science fiction for the same reasons I had loved fairy tales and fantasy as a child: I could leave my everyday life behind and travel to worlds of imagination and possibility. It wasn’t long before I read Isaac Asimov’s I Robot series, with its Laws of Robotics.
“When I was a school librarian at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, I loved talking to boys and girls about all kinds of books, from my favorite childhood family stories such as the Little House books to fantasies such as The Chronicles of Narnia books and Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain.
“My marriage to Raymond Chang, who grew up in Shanghai, China, during World War II and the civil war that followed, made me part of a large Chinese family. My mother-in-law welcomed me, though she didn’t speak a word of English, and taught me to cook some of Raymond’s favorite dishes. I read about the events and beliefs that shaped his family’s life and carried what I learned into the field of children’s books.
Raymond and I had already written a popular book on the Chinese language when I took a graduate course in writing for children that led to a novel and three picture books set in China, coauthored with Raymond. Because I was also te
“I grew up as an only child in Whittier, a suburb of Los Angeles, surrounded by people like my parents—transplanted Middle Westerners. Just beyond Whittier’s city limits stretched a vast, intriguing, multicultural city. I was five when we went downtown to eat Chinese food at Tang’s. It tasted a lot better than my mother’s Indiana cooking, and I still remember the small dish of yellow mustard with a drop of bright red hot sauce in the middle.
“My parents took me to the beach whenever they could, beginning my lifelong love of the Pacific shore. Another family pleasure was reading. Every night before bedtime, my father read aloud to me. I met Dorothy Gale, Robin Hood, Mowgli, D’Artagnan, Jo March, and brave, determined children from the Grimm and Andersen fairy tales. Later, reading on my own, I discovered Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, and Anna Karenina. But I never stopped reading children’s books.
“After graduating from Scripps College with a degree in English and a minor in art, I went east to library school at Rutgers to become a children’s librarian. I worked as an elementary school librarian for the Lexington Public Schools in Massachusetts and as a children’s librarian for the New York Public Library. I met Raymond Chang, the boy who’d been eating his rice porridge in Shanghai while I was having breakfast in my high chair in California. We married at my home in Whittier and moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, where Raymond taught chemistry at Williams College for many years. We have one daughter. With her, I returned to the West Coast for yearly visits with my parents and our Chinese family.
“A master’s degree from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College enabled me to pursue two parallel careers: writing and teaching. While Raymond and I coauthored four children’s books set in China, I taught both graduate and undergraduate students of children’s literature at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams. The Institutes offered by Children’s Literature New England (CLNE) inspired my teaching for twenty years.
“After taking a long break from teaching to finish Celia’s Robot, I expect to continue writing stories and promoting children’s literature for many years to come.”
How Celia’s Robot Came to Be:
“I was thirteen when I discovered science fiction. Even though the characters were mostly active guys and helpless girls (because the books were written mostly by men), I loved science fiction for the same reasons I had loved fairy tales and fantasy as a child: I could leave my everyday life behind and travel to worlds of imagination and possibility. It wasn’t long before I read Isaac Asimov’s I Robot series, with its Laws of Robotics.
“When I was a school librarian at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, I loved talking to boys and girls about all kinds of books, from my favorite childhood family stories such as the Little House books to fantasies such as The Chronicles of Narnia books and Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain.
“My marriage to Raymond Chang, who grew up in Shanghai, China, during World War II and the civil war that followed, made me part of a large Chinese family. My mother-in-law welcomed me, though she didn’t speak a word of English, and taught me to cook some of Raymond’s favorite dishes. I read about the events and beliefs that shaped his family’s life and carried what I learned into the field of children’s books.
Raymond and I had already written a popular book on the Chinese language when I took a graduate course in writing for children that led to a novel and three picture books set in China, coauthored with Raymond. Because I was also te
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 31, 2017
An old Chinese tale about familial dedication, Neo chose this one to expand his collection of fairy tales. An ancient Chinese emperor had an penchant for watching cricket fighting, which was almost matched by his love of money, which explained his high rate of taxation for the populace. The emperor made an agreement that he would waive taxes for anyone who was able to bring for a worthy fighting cricket, though few could be certain of finding one that met these stringent specifications. A poor farmer found one that might work and left to summon the local magistrate to assess his cricket. A curious son took a peek and let the cricket out, shaming himself and his family. In an act of complete dedication to his family, the boy called on his elders to transform him into a cricket and have the father unknowingly use him as his submission to the emperor's fighting competition. While puny in appearance, the cricket did well and showed an agile side, pitting against much larger and skilled crickets. Would it be enough to honour his family and leave the emperor to waive their taxes? Only time would tell. Neo enjoyed this story, even though it was longer and out of his usual realm of interest. There's no doubt that expanding his reading material will help immensely.
September 2, 2018
I think I would have rated this higher if I had not read it shortly after The Faithful Friend. The Chang's retelling of a boy who works for his family is heartfelt and moving. There are some class issues that are detail with. A bit at the end of the book gives infromation about the source material. It just lacks a charm that the better children's books have. It isn't bad. It just isn't great.
December 31, 2019
A Chinese folk tale. The emperor is obsessed with cricket fighting so everyone pays taxes in crickets.
A young boy makes a foolish mistake which will endanger/harm his family. So when a wise old man appears, he transforms the young boy into a cricket to save his family.
A young boy makes a foolish mistake which will endanger/harm his family. So when a wise old man appears, he transforms the young boy into a cricket to save his family.
September 22, 2024
Bringing international folklore to an American audience is a worthy, much needed endeavor. While this one does not quite live up to all modern expectations, it is a huge contribution to the minimalist, out-of-date canon we have even by today’s standards.
Big hugs to the Changs for helping to cross the cultural divide and expand our world of stories.
Send me crickets!!🦗
Big hugs to the Changs for helping to cross the cultural divide and expand our world of stories.
Send me crickets!!🦗
November 26, 2022
This story pulls on the heart strings. The kids always are enraptured by this tale.
January 15, 2017
Retold by Chang, Margaret and Raymond The Cricket Warrior: A Chinese Tale 20 pgs. Margaret K Elderberry Books (Simon), 1994. $16.99 Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G Violence: G
This must be a republish edition, though I find no signs of that, and the book looks brand new. This is a re-telling of the classic Chinese folktale first recorded around the year 1700, though like most folktales it could be significantly older. The story is a family who needs to come up with a fighting cricket to give to the magistrate in order save their small farm. When a young boy accidentally releases it, a magical figure gives him the chance to take its place and save his family honor and land.
I thought the story was simply fascinating and I adore world folktales. I would for sure use this in a series of lessons I do in the library during which I read folktales and we map where they are from and if they have a their own name (like tall tales). I must say that I don’t think a student would check this out on their own, the illustrations are incredibly dull and unappealing.
EL(K-3), EL –OPTIONAL Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2016/...
This must be a republish edition, though I find no signs of that, and the book looks brand new. This is a re-telling of the classic Chinese folktale first recorded around the year 1700, though like most folktales it could be significantly older. The story is a family who needs to come up with a fighting cricket to give to the magistrate in order save their small farm. When a young boy accidentally releases it, a magical figure gives him the chance to take its place and save his family honor and land.
I thought the story was simply fascinating and I adore world folktales. I would for sure use this in a series of lessons I do in the library during which I read folktales and we map where they are from and if they have a their own name (like tall tales). I must say that I don’t think a student would check this out on their own, the illustrations are incredibly dull and unappealing.
EL(K-3), EL –OPTIONAL Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2016/...
June 24, 2013
In this Chinese folktale from the 1600s, a boy loses a fighting cricket that would have paid their taxes and saved the farm. A kind old man (a magician?) offers the boy the chance to save his family by changing himself into a fighting cricket. His adventures as a cricket, his escape, and his return to human form are retold here, with a note at the end of the book referencing the original ancient tale. Important Chinese values of honor, respect, family, and sacrifice are represented. Warwick Hutton illustrated the book with lovely watercolor and ink drawings. Ages 4-10.
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March 7, 2024The emperor wants to find the best cricket fighter. A poor farmer's son loses his family's cricket so requests to become one and fights to the top before returning home.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews