Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy: A Chinese Folktale

by Ellin Greene, Zong-Zhou Wang (Illustrator)

When the beautiful robe that Ling-Li has woven for her wedding is stolen by a flock of magpies, the Phoenix Fairy, Queen of the Birds, returns the robe to Ling-Li and blesses her marriage.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fell flat for me. It ended abruptly. The art didn't make the story come alive. Not a keeper.

[Jayda J]

Feels wrong for me to rate this considering I am not a child (the intended audience) nor am I Chinese, so I have 0 knowledge of this folktale. All I'm gonna say is I didn't enjoy this. I just feel like the story could've used more details

[Michelle Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: italicizeLing-Li and the Phoenix Fairy
Author: Ellin Greene
Illustrator: Zong-Zhou Wang
Genre: Non-European Folktale
Theme(s): Social Class Standing, Chinese Culture, Folktales
Opening line/sentence: Once, long ago, in a small village in the mountainous region of China, there lived a girl who was exceptionally clever with her hands.
Brief Book Summary: This Chinese folktale tells the story of a girl named Ling-Li who is to marry a man of poor circumstances. The story tells of how she spends 3 months working on making a wedding robe and how it is stolen by another bride, and then by birds. Ling-Li cleverly catches the birds later, and has them fly to where to robe is. There she meets a spirit maiden and the phoenix fairy who kindly returns the robe to her. Ling-Li ends up getting married in the robe and then has the birds guard it for her, while she works in the fields, farming. One day, the other bride sees the robe sitting in the grass and attempts to take it, but the birds peck at her, and eventually destroy the robe in the process. Later, even though Ling-Li is sad, she plants a multitude of flowers that remind her of the robe and the Phoenix Fairy.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1: Horn Book Online Guide
Greene, Ellin and Wang, Zong-Zhou Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy: A Chinese Folktale
32 pp. Clarion ISBN 0-395-71528-8
(3) K-3 series. Having painstakingly created her own exquisite wedding robe, Ling-Li refuses to exchange robes with anyone--not even the Phoenix Fairy, a mythical Chinese creature who appears to Ling-Li as a 'spirit maiden.' While the artist's rendering does not do complete justice to Ling-Li's intricately embroidered robe, his portrayal of the setting and characters conveys the flavor of the story well.
Folktales/Myths/and Legends; Birds; Flowers; Weddings; Handicrafts; Mythology



Professional Recommendation/Review #2: Lauren Peterson
In a picture book for older readers, Ling-Li works day and night embroidering a beautiful wedding robe, only to have it stolen by wealthy, spoiled Golden Flower. The robe comes into the hands of the Phoenix Fairy, queen of the birds and a symbol of happiness and good fortune, who returns it to Ling-Li with a marriage blessing of harmony and a rich life for the girl and her future husband. Greene's flowing retelling of this lovely Chinese folktale meshes beautifully with Wang's resplendent acrylic paintings. Particularly lovely is the rendering of the brilliant phoenix bird. A lengthy afterword explaining the significance of the phoenix in Chinese mythology will prove both interesting and helpful to children studying China or mythology.

Response to Two Professional Reviews: The reviews for this book explain the trouble Ling-Li went through to make this wedding robe, and emphasize what it truly means to her. The reviews explain how the “Phoenix Fairy” is a symbol of goof fortune and happiness that come into Ling-Li’s life from that point of the story. The reviews say how this would be a helpful book for those children studying Chinese heritage, China, or even mythology. They also applaud the illustrations and the acrylic paintings shown throughout the book.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: Through reading this book, I have gathered that this would probably be appropriate for an older age child who may be studying China or mythology. It is more of a lengthy story, with more mature illustrations, which would probably appeal more to fourth or fifth grade students. I think that this is somewhat easy of a story to follow, however, because there is no repetition or catchy sequencing, I don’t think this would be appropriate for younger ages.
Consideration of Instructional Application: This Chinese folktale could be implemented into a classroom in a variety of ways, but I think it would be especially helpful with either mythology or China units. I think that there are definitely clues towards the ancient Chinese culture within the book, so it could be used as a foundational text for this sort of unit. I think this could be used in a whole group setting, when talking about Chinese traditions or folktales. This could be a read aloud of a class, or something that a child could explore individually. Either way, I think that they could use this for a foundation for folktales and for studying ancient China. In addition, you could also talk about society in the way of socio-economic statuses. The other bride, Golden Flower, was about to marry a wealthy man, whom showered her with all of these expensive gifts. We saw her character being unhappy and jealous throughout the book, where as Ling-Li was quite the opposite. Ling-Li was about to marry a man of lower socio-economic status, and she was overly grateful and hard working in return. This could be teaching a great lesson of making the most of what your dealt in life.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A retelling of a fairy tale -- not generally known even by type to European audiences -- without particular flare and with rather pretty pictures.

[Emi えみ Takami 鷹見 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful story with the artwork to match!

[Renee Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possible for storytelling. Chinese folktale by Ellin Greene. Beautiful illustrations.