Catherine Louis

I really enjoyed reading this story because I learned a lot about Chinese calligraphy and writing, which I knew nothing about before! I loved how the text bolded certain words, like “hand”, and then had those words in a box around the page- three boxes, one for a picture of a hand, one for the new Chinese calligraphy, and one for the old Chinese calligraphy. This put in perspective exactly what the story was about- Liu going on a journey to find his grandfather. I enjoyed reading about show more his journey because it connected to the Chinese writing, where Liu knew the new calligraphy, while his grandfather knew the old! It was awesome to see the difference in generations, too. The message of this book arrives at the end of the story, and it is to honor the generation’s different ways of communicating. Liu draws his journey to his grandfather, rather than verbally telling him because he encourages alternate ways of communicating. I loved reading this story about Liu’s journey because the as I turned each page, I learned something new about the Chinese culture, which I never knew before! show less

(I Heard This from the Rat....)

A fun telling of the origins of the Chinese zodiac, this one explains how the order of animals came to be and why there is no cat on the list.

There are three colors that make up this powerfully illustrated book: red, black and white. The drawings are huge and the text is comparatively small.

I bought this book in early 2017 after my son was born. I chose it because of the striking black and white pictures. As an infant he loved looking at the patterns. Indeed, show more it is a beautiful book. I think it is one that we will read at every Chinese New Year. He is a rooster, and his brother will be a dog. It's going to be fun explaining to them how this came to be. show less

Has striking, bold, black, red, and white illustrations and a simple story of the animals being named by the Great Emperor of Heaven to the cycle of twelve years which is the Zodiac. It also is an explanation tale for why cats’ chase rats, because in this tale, the rat tricks the cat and doesn’t wake him up to be included in the zodiac—thus eliciting eternal enmity.

Story begins with Rat and Cat, who were friends at the time. Rat tricks Cat, promising to wake him up in time for the zodiac assignments. He doesn't...cat sleeps through. Crafty Rat hitches a ride on the ox and leaps off at the last second to become the first year. The other animals are assigned their years. Poor cat wakes up to find he missed everything. Cat has hated Rat ever since.