Posted on by TracyC

The Fourth Question

The Fourth Question retold by Rosalind C. Wang, illustrated by Ju-Hong Chen, 1991.

This is a retelling of a Chinese folktale.

There was once a poor young man, Yee-Lee who lived with his mother. Even though Yee-Lee works very hard, he can barely make enough money to keep him and his mother alive. He wonders why he has so little money even though he works so hard and decides to go to the Wise Man of Kun-lun Mountain to seek the answer and his advice so he and his mother can have a better life.

It’s a long way to reach the Wise Men, and along the way, he encounters other people who also needed help. A kind old woman who gives Yee-Lee some water and food has a daughter who is unable to speak and wants to know how to help her. An old man has a tree in his orchard that won’t bear fruit, and he can’t figure out why. A dragon who helps Yee-Lee to reach the mountain cannot manage to fly to heaven even though he has lived a good life. Yee-Lee has sympathy for all of these people and the dragon and appreciates the help they give him, so he promises that when he reaches the Wise Man, he will seek the answers to their problems as well.

However, when Yee-Lee finally reaches the Wise Man, he is told that he is only allowed to ask three questions during his visit. It’s a problem because Yee-Lee now has four questions to ask, the three that he promised to ask for others plus the original question that he wanted to ask for himself. He has to decide which of the questions will go unanswered.

Yee-Lee’s question is important to him, but when he thinks about the other people who are now depending on him to come back with answers for him, he reluctantly decides to forget his own question and answer theirs. However, in solving the problems of others, Yee-Lee finds the solution to his own problem. Like the heroes of other folktales, Yee-Lee is rewarded for his good deeds!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Owly

Owly by Mike Thaler, 1982.

Owly is a curious young owl.  He is always asking his mother questions, like how many stars there are in the sky or how high the sky is.

Owl’s mother tells him to go and see these things for himself, but there are too many stars in the sky to count, and he can’t fly high enough to reach the sky.

The story continues with Owly’s questions and attempts to find the answers, but all of his questions are unanswerable because they involve amounts too big to count or measure.

In the end, Owly and his mother talk about how much they love each other, and they compare it to the number of stars in the sky and the other things that couldn’t be counted or measured.

This is one of those children’s books where the story leads up to how much the parent loves the child (and vice versa). I’ve seen other books where the author sets up a cute way to talk about how much parents love their children, and sometimes, the set up is pretty obvious in this type of story. However, the message is still sweet, and this gentle story might make nice, calming bedtime reading. The pictures are as gentle and calm as the story itself.

The book is currently available on Internet Archive.