Chinese / People's Republic of China
You yong
(Swimming)
Liu, Haiqi
(text)
Yang, Bo
(illus.)
Qingdao: Qingdao chu ban she (Qingdao Publishing Group), 2022. – 274 p.
(Series: Xiao tong shu)
ISBN 978-7-5736-0039-4
Jinan City | History 1950s-1960s | Poverty | Growing up | Playing | Creativity
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2022
This novel is about a childhood in Jinan City about half a century ago. It was an era when children were neither given many toys nor able to spend much time with adults. However, nothing could stop their passion for playing and roaming their surroundings to learn all about everything they could. From the perspective of the first-person narrator, a young boy, readers find out how skilled children were in creating something from nothing. Liu Haiqi, one of the pre-eminent Chinese novelists for children today and recognizable by his colloquial style, is a master in capturing the aesthetic dimensions of a child’s voice and perspective. He is the author of »You ge zi de xia tian« (The summer of pigeons), »Wu wei xiao shu li xian ji« (Adventures of a tailless mouse), »Ba ba shu« (The father tree), and »Dou zi di li de tong hua« (Fairy tales from the bean field). Liu has won the Chinese National Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature and other prizes. He is also a children’s book publisher and former CBBY deputy chairman. [FW, ZX]