Dragon Kites and Dragonflies: A Collection of Chinese Nursery Rhymes

ting and illustrating this collection of Chinese nursery rhymes, Demi has turned out a joy-filled labor of love. Her interest in Asia has been apparent in the style of her previous work, and here it's in full blossom. Diminutive black-haired characters scamper across camelback bridges, dance beneath the robes of a dragon, fly kites several times their own size, and sing through the process of silk-making (it begins with the harvest of mulberry leaves for the silk worms). Slightly reminiscent of Anno, but really all Demi's own, the book will take readers through chants that beg to be sung to the beat of a jump rope, or spoken more gently at day's end. The delicate watercolors show architecture, plants and animals, perhaps of the past, but the nursery rhymes will easily be snapped up by contemporary readers. (4-8)