Product Description

Honor Book for the Society of School Librarians International’s Best Book Award - Language Arts, Grades K-6 Novels

Selected as one of four recipients of the 2004 Aesop Accolade

Selected by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association as one of the PSLA YA Top Forty Fiction Titles 2003


At about the time the Grimm Brothers were gathering their famous collection of folk stories and fairy tales in Europe, in China a similar collection of almost five hundred stories had just been compiled by the scholar Pu Sing-ling. Drawing on oral and written sources, he called his collection of the strange and wondrous Strange Tales from a Studio of Leisure.

The fruits of his life’s work become immensely popular with storytellers who performed the stories in teahouses, where rapt audiences would sit for half a day drinking tea and listening to tales of ghosts, fox fairies, and other wonders.

Almost unknown in the West, the stories are given new life in this important work by the masterful Michael Bedard.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1562849 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-28
• Released on: 2003-10-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 120 pages

Amazon.ca
The Liao-chai is to China what Grimms' Fairy Tales is to Western Europe. In fact, Pu Sung-Ling finished compiling the 500 supernatural stories that comprised his life's work (known in English as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) a century before the Brothers Grimm recorded their first folk tale. As Michael Bedard notes in his introduction to The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales, the Liao-chai became so popular in China that by the middle of the 19th century virtually every household had a copy. It is easy to understand the fascination of these gem-like Chinese ghost stories. Often no more than two pages in length, they blend the real and fantastical in ways that are startling and yet oddly believable.

Bedard, whose critically acclaimed young-adult novels include Stained Glass and the award-winning fantasy Redwork, has selected 32 of Pu Sung-Ling's tales, beautifully adapting them for young English-speaking readers. In his capable hands, stories like "The Tiger of Chao-cheng" (in which an elderly woman is befriended by the tiger that killed her only son) and the mystical "Planting a Pear Tree" (about a Taoist priest and a stingy fruit vendor) express the eloquence of classic Chinese literature. The sheer range of this anthology is also impressive--it includes everything from moral fables and fairy stories to encounters with the occult and journeys into the land of dreams. Children as young as eight will enjoy these succinctly told tales at bedtime, while older readers will also appreciate the biographical tidbits about the impoverished Chinese scholar who transcribed them. --Lisa Alward

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-Known as the Liao-chai, these enchanting stories were first collected by a scholar named Pu Sung-ling a century before the Grimms began their work in Europe. Wildly popular in China but little known in the West, they draw on the supernatural or unusual to cast their spell. For example, in "Planting a Pear Tree," a greedy fruit vendor watches his wares magically disappear after he refuses to give a poor Taoist priest a pear. In "The Tiger of Chao-cheng," the featured animal takes care of an old woman whose son he had killed, providing for her throughout her remaining days, and then grieving fiercely when she dies. In "The Glass Eyes," a boy steals from a temple and must make amends when he figures out that his uncle is being punished for his deed. In "The Painted Wall," a young man finds himself in great bliss and in grave danger when he somehow becomes part of a picture. The stories are short and accessible to reluctant readers. An author's note provides a bit of history. Add this title if your folktale collection needs some interesting stories with an Asian flavor.
Linda M. Kenton, San Rafael Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-7. Three-hundred years before the Grimm brothers created their famous volumes, Pu Sung-ling, a Chinese scholar, collected more than 500 folktales from his native land. The book, The Liao-chai, remains one of the most popular books in Chinese literature. In this welcome collection, Bedard, known for lyrical picture books such as Emily (1993), offers stories from The Liao-chai that are dramatic yet brief; most are only a few pages long. Readers will find exciting tales of the supernatural in which restless ghosts chase travelers, a magician fits a houseful of servants in the sleeves of his robe, and several men find love with spirit wives. In an introduction about Pu Sung-ling's life, Bedard mentions that the stories have their roots in classical Chinese literature. Children will enjoy the stories' rich language, thrilling action, and vividly described Chinese culture, and some may recognize echoes of familiar Western tales, such as Johnny Appleseed, and even Biblical stories among the universal themes. Great for readers' theater or language arts courses. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Chinese folktales
I happened to pick up this book on a whim, and was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. Many people refer to Liao-Chai's writings as similar to Grimm's Fairytales (which I have been fond of for years). My favorite story in this collection is "The Tiger of Chao-cheng." Shapeshifters, magical creatures, gods, priests, greedy men, and more wait to be discovered in this unique collection of folktales.