Hokkien (Taiwan Minnan) / Taiwan
Jua̍h-thinn ê sî-tsūn. Lóo lóo ê hā-thinn – Re tian de shi zhen. Lu lu de xia tian
(Hot, hot summer days)
Chu, Yu-Ling
(Chu, Yuling)
(text)
Chu, Chia-Hui
(Chu, Jiahui)
(illus.)
Lü, Meiqin
(transl.)
Xin bei shi: Lian jing chu ban shi ye gu fen you xian gong si (Linking Publ.), 2021. – 36 p.
ISBN 978-957-08-5860-0
Text Hokkien (Taiwan Minnan) and Chinese
Summer | Heat | Rain | Playing | Childhood memories | Bilingual book | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2022
There is always something to look forward to on a hot summer day. Yellow mangoes sway on tree branches like little suns, and after a sudden tropical downpour the whole yard is filled with water. Two boys and their dog become ferrymen, rowing in a bucket. They shake the trees to let water droplets splash all over their bodies and let their clothes dry by the whispering wind. Rain is a gift, wind is a luxury, the canopy of the mango trees seems like the top of the world. Tomorrow they will play again. In this simple story, Chu Yu-Ling recreates the smells and sounds of summer in lyrical phrases and the rich, beautiful tones of the Hokkien (Taiwanese) language. For her, a picture book is a song with an overall rhythm, a song composed of pictures and text. The calm texture and few simple colours of Chu Chia-Hui’s rubbed engravings almost make the reader hear this song about the quiet feeling of pure joy on a magical day. The childhood memories conjured up in this book are shared by generations of Taiwanese. [LO]