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In the Land of Small Dragon
Although unfairly treated by Cam, the guileful daughter of her jealous stepmother, T'am, a beautiful and good child, is helped and rewarded by her fairy-godmother
40 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
25 people want to read
About the author
Ann Nolan Clark
91 books11 followersAnn Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan, was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 12, 2018
Beautifully told and beautifully illustrated.
August 31, 2022
This Vietnamese version of Cinderella has the familiar elements: loving but distant father, good-hearted girl who’s a bit of a doormat, ugly stepsister, bland Prince Charming, inexplicably meddling fairy. The details, however, feature a story rendered in poetic stanzas and couplets sprinkled along the way.
Where the story falls down is the behavior of the prince. He makes his decision to marry the owner of a shoe after the footwear drops from a bird flying above him. There’s no ball in which he meets an enigmatic maiden, no conversation, no dancing together. No, this prince falls in love based on a lone piece of accessory. This decision is accompanied by this couplet:
In truth, beauty seeks goodness:
What is beautiful is good.
This is utter nonsense! Beauty and goodness are not synonymous. Anybody who’s ever eaten a pineapple will tell you that. The fruit is ugly on the outside but the flesh within is sweet, tasty and good for you. Monarch butterflies are beautiful but they’re filled with a toxin that kills birds that unknowingly eat them.
The prince falls madly in love because the slipper is bejeweled and he thinks only a beautiful maid could wear something so lovely. At least Perrault’s prince had talked with his incognito dancing princess before deciding to find and marry her. This buffoon tumbles head over heel over footwear and declares he’ll marry her, a statement backed up by his doting father, the Great Emperor.
The good girl Tâm is a bit of a dimwit, allowing herself to be tricked—twice—by her nasty stepsister Cám. In terms of intelligence, Tâm more or less matches her asinine royal suitor and his father. She doesn’t win her prince because of goodness, kindness or decency but simply because an exquisite dress given to her by strange magic allows her to walk unchallenged past the royal guards. These men bow down to her even though she’s a barefoot stranger. Some protectors they are.
So what redeems this ho-hum dum-dum fairy tale version of Perrault’s famous fairy tale? The illustrations. They are in color or black and white and they are gorgeous. Created by the gifted Tony Chen, they make this book a thing of beauty and delight. You can ignore the story where almost everyone asks like a fool and simply focus on the pictures.
Where the story falls down is the behavior of the prince. He makes his decision to marry the owner of a shoe after the footwear drops from a bird flying above him. There’s no ball in which he meets an enigmatic maiden, no conversation, no dancing together. No, this prince falls in love based on a lone piece of accessory. This decision is accompanied by this couplet:
In truth, beauty seeks goodness:
What is beautiful is good.
This is utter nonsense! Beauty and goodness are not synonymous. Anybody who’s ever eaten a pineapple will tell you that. The fruit is ugly on the outside but the flesh within is sweet, tasty and good for you. Monarch butterflies are beautiful but they’re filled with a toxin that kills birds that unknowingly eat them.
The prince falls madly in love because the slipper is bejeweled and he thinks only a beautiful maid could wear something so lovely. At least Perrault’s prince had talked with his incognito dancing princess before deciding to find and marry her. This buffoon tumbles head over heel over footwear and declares he’ll marry her, a statement backed up by his doting father, the Great Emperor.
The good girl Tâm is a bit of a dimwit, allowing herself to be tricked—twice—by her nasty stepsister Cám. In terms of intelligence, Tâm more or less matches her asinine royal suitor and his father. She doesn’t win her prince because of goodness, kindness or decency but simply because an exquisite dress given to her by strange magic allows her to walk unchallenged past the royal guards. These men bow down to her even though she’s a barefoot stranger. Some protectors they are.
So what redeems this ho-hum dum-dum fairy tale version of Perrault’s famous fairy tale? The illustrations. They are in color or black and white and they are gorgeous. Created by the gifted Tony Chen, they make this book a thing of beauty and delight. You can ignore the story where almost everyone asks like a fool and simply focus on the pictures.
April 28, 2025
Vietnamese style of Cinderella
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews