The Man Who Tricked a Ghost

by Laurence Yep, Isadore Seltzer (Illustrator)

A lively Chinese folktale finds the brave Sung on a moonlit walk, encountering a scary ghost that he tricks into revealing its secret weakness. Reprint.

Genres: Picture Books, Halloween, Childrens, Monsters

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Born June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep. Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood. After troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. He was in his own words his neighborhood's "all-purpose Asian" and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. They later married and now live in San Francisco.

Although not living in Chinatown, Yep commuted to a parochial bilingual school there. Other students at the school, according to Yep, labeled him a "dumbbell Chinese" because he spoke only English. During high school he faced the white American culture for the first time. However, it was while attending high school that he started writing for a science fiction magazine, being paid one cent a word for his efforts. After two years at Marquette University, Yep transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. He continued on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. Today as well as writing, he has taught writing and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Abby Holcomb]

The Man Who Tricked a Ghost is an old story, originally written in the third century AD, one of the first to appear in print in China. An emperor himself was even said to have written it down but we may never know for sure. The story follows a man named Sung who is not afraid of anything. He finds himself in a dark forest late at night and meets a ghost. He tricks the ghost into thinking that he is a ghost too. They talk and Sung discovers the ghost is going to try and scare or kill him! He tricks the ghost into telling him his weakness, human soit that will keep him in the same form. Sung leads him into town and when he shifts into a goat to hide from people, Sung spits on him so he is stuck!
I really enjoyed reading this book and I thought the illustrations were very unique. The story was very creative and it was cool to see parts of Chinese culture mixed into the story. I’m not sure I would have much reason to use this in a classroom other than entertainment or learning about Chinese culture. Still a very entertaining book though! I think children would love the pictures.

[Kathy Duffy]

A Chinese folktale one of the first ever written and believed to have been written down by an emperor so this tale has a long history. A man named Sung travelling at night path crosses with a ghost and he uses various ways to try and get the ghost to tell him what ghost fear the most.

A good non-scary story for young ones at Halloween.

[Cortni Merritt]

My 6 year old son and I love this artwork. There are messages about bravery and cleverness that he has really enjoyed and been able to learn from. Love the brief history of the story at the end!

[Donna Tarver]

loved that story, and the illustrations were amazing.

[Shelby Troutman]

The man outsmarts the ghost. He makes the ghost believe that he too is a ghost and therfore, the true ghost does not scare him. This shows that sometimes you have to think outside the box and be brave if you want to succeed.

[Dolly]

This is a fun and slightly spooky ghost story from China. The story is entertaining and the illustrations are colorful and not too scary. We loved that this story was so old and has lasted throughout the ages. We enjoyed reading this story together.

[Carole]

A young man visits a friend in another village, stays too late, but decides to walk home in the dark even though his friend tries to get him to stay because he might encounter a ghost in the night if he walks home. He does meet a ghost and outwits him.

[Shannon]

My 5-year-old didn't find it scary at all (that's good) and she loves hearing anything related to China (despite the fact that she's about as Caucasian as it comes).