Patrick Atangan

Right off the bat, I must admit that I am very impressed by the quality and type of books under the NBM banner. A niche market, perhaps, of presenting books like this, but definitely needed to counter-balance the overload of junk being published by too many others.

That said, The Yellow Jar, being a visual representation of Japanese traditional tales is a beautiful book. The art, crisp and vibrant, is drawn in the style of olden times (or, as said in the book's description: "in the ukiyo-e show more style (world of floating pictures)").

The two stories, as all folklore, are morality tales teaching a message by means of a visual imagery filled with acceptance and understanding of the unexplainable and unbelievable. This book is simply wonderful. show less

Pan-Gu is the Chinese folk tale version of the creation story. When Pan-Gu becomes lonely, he sculpts the world out of an egg in hopes that others like him would come. This story was drawn out into 3 pages, when it could have easily been told in one. The art kept to traditional Chinese cultural artwork, and was very beautiful. It had a lot of text that was very small so it’s hard to know what age group this was intended for. The Silk Tapestry is the traditional story of an impoverished show more elderly woman’s search for paradise. This sad tale was the longest story in the book. This cautionary tale is about the plight of Chinese women and how they are often mistreated and undervalued in Chinese society. It could also be a tale warning young people, to treat the elderly with respect. This extremely simple story could be read to any child of any age to teach them about empathy. Children begin reading this on their own at about 8 years old. The artwork is lovely, and I really enjoyed this story. Sausage-boy and his magic brush is about a boy with a magical paintbrush. This Chinese tale has a moral of always obtaining things in an honest way so it is good for kids of all ages. The artwork follows the beautiful, traditional Chinese art, from the other two stories. Out of all 3 of the stories in the book this was my favourite. Unlike many western tales, the moral of the story is subtle. Overall I found these folk tales to be mediocre. They weren't the best folk tales I’d ever seen, but they did the job they were intended to do. show less

Beautiful graphics but the storytelling is a bit confusing - perhaps it's just my cultural expectations but the story seemed somewhat esoteric...

Beautiful and bittersweet...the stories about his grandmother especially resonated with me.