The Magic Leaf

by Winifred Morris, Ju-Hong Chen

When a foolish man believes he has become invisible from touching a magic leaf, he sneaks into the mayor's private garden to view the peonies. The story combines three traditional Chinese folk tales by having Lee Foo make all three traditional mistakes.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

I've built and remodeled houses and helped plant more than a million trees. I'm also the author of several award-winning children's books published the more traditional way, five picture books and four novels for the young - and young at heart.

But as publishing has changed, I've changed too. I've started writing for adults and let myself get a little wackier. Of Mice and Money is a comic women's book, which I'm told is a contradiction in terms. How come? Bombed is comic romantic suspense. And I'll soon be releasing The Sometime Burglar, a comic romantic novella.

I've also published Living in Suspension, which is a return to my YA roots. It’s not as funny, and I love humor, but it means a lot to me. It’s the story of a struggling teenager, more like Liar which was an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant YA Readers.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen versions of the story before, but this is especially engagingly told. Funny. The illustrations though, goodness! I've never seen a style like this, beautiful but not as heavy as, say, Ruth Sanderson, with plenty of attention to detail, but also plenty of white space.

Speaking of white space, the design is perfectly done, too. Picture-book size, not too big. Arrangement of art on the pages apt to the activity on each - sometimes almost full, sometimes smaller, sometimes two images on one page. Just about a perfect book.

The more I think about it, and look it over again, the more I like it, so I just feel compelled to give it the full five stars. I will look for more by the author, and most especially by the illustrator.

[Tricia Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was suggested to me by my Goodreads buddies. The book illustrations and story remind me a little of my beloved Demi books. The Magic Leaf recounts a story of a man in China who thinks he is very smart. Would love to use this book in my classroom and discuss how and why a person might be "smart." Lee Foo thinks himself very clever but some of the things he does would make most question this quality. When he finds a leaf that through legend makes him invisible, Lee Foo gets into more trouble instead of less. I will file this book onto my favorite's shelf. Rating could/should be 4.5..

[Amber Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illustrated by Chen Ju-Hong in 1987, this is his first set of book illustrations published in the United States. I enjoyed the water color art much more than the art in other books I've read with Chen as artist. I especially liked the page with the 'hero's' wife rolling out noodles. There is good facial emotion on people's faces throughout. Since I'm fond of peonies, I would have liked the peony page to be less abstract.

It's unclear to me whether the story, a folk tale set in China, is one that is re-told or an imagined one. The main character thinks of himself as being more intelligent than he is, and after a series of miscalculations, learns in the end that he is not so smart after all. I'm not sure if this is a lesson well told, but it was an interesting read.