The Jade Stone-Caryn Yacowitz

This Chinese folktale has realistic images that were painted in ink and water color. I really like that the paper was homemade rice paper, making the book seem more realistic. Being my first folktale book for this class, I have nothing to compare it to, but I think that it was well written. I feel that it was to the authors advantage to add the quotes from the characters. This made it seem as if were being told in story form, like an actual folktale. The painted images assisted me while reading the story and put it in perspective of the Chinese culture. The clothing was very realistically designed in the paintings. I like the format of the paper because each page was lined up so the homemade rice paper looked like a scrip. I think that the cover and endpapers could have had more color. The dust jacket had two small images and a legible spin. The information on the front flap was an helpful introduction, along with the information in the back of the book. If I wanted to include cultural diverse stories in my classroom, I feel that this folktale would be a good choice. I would recommended for students in grades second-sixth.