Liu and the Bird: A Journey in Chinese Calligraphy

by Catherine Louis, Feng Xiao Min, Sibylle Kazeroid (Translator)

A 2006 IBBY Honor List title, this innovative book combines the story of Liu who goes off to visit her grandfather with a rebus-style look at the evolution of Chinese written language from pictures to today's modern calligraphy characters. You can read them, play with them, and dream about them. This book is sure to please children and adults of all backgrounds with its peek into this fascinating topic.

Genres: Picture Books, Art, Cultural

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

Reviews

[Carrie Gelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot wait to share this in class!

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Liu's magical trip to her grandfather's house using the history of Chinese calligraphy to help tell the tale. Along the way she meets a bird, a man resting under a tree and various other characters that help guide her to her grandfather's house. When she finally arrives, her grandfather asks her to tell him about her journey not with her mouth, but with her hands drawing pictures of what she saw.
The unique illustrations of the book depict Liu's journey, but also certain vocabulary words that are pointed out and then broken down in Chinese calligraphy. They show the history of certain words in Chinese calligraphy. It is interesting to see the evolution of certain words. The end of the book suggests activity ideas such as "make up your own symbols" that I think would be useful in a classroom. The students would be learning about another culture's way of communicating and then trying to make it relate to their own lives. This book may be a bit harder to read out loud, but if you guide the students along with the illustrations on the side I think it could be a useful teaching tool.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the english version. The Swiss/French language version ISBN is 2-87730-679-8 This story of a girl's trip to her grandfather's house is magical. The pages tell the story of her journey in text, pictures and calligraphy. The calligraphy is fascinating,as the author shows how some of the characters may have derived from the appearce of the objects/words they represent. It is interesting to look at the cover of the original- very different from this English version. I vastly prefer the original as it is not a cluttered as this one seems to be.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think this book would go off very well for a story time, but a child on their own might be fascinated by the "evolution" of Chinese characters. I was, but then I have always had a fascination and slight obsession with anything Chinese-related. I enjoyed the book even more as I recognized most of the characters taught. And there are suggested activities at the end to get children to see the connection between writing today and pictures. Could be some fun rainy day distractions. Perhaps I can book talk this one.

[Maurynne Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It gives a true picture (heh heh) of the visual nature of Chinese words and writing; forest looks like plural trees.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations, so-so story.