Chinese / People's Republic of China
Xiang bian cheng yi ke shu
(Wanna be a tree)
Jinbo
(text)
Ni, Wen
(illus.)
Pang, Kun
(illus.)
Nanning: Jie li chu ban she (Jieli Publishing House), 2023. – 183 p.
ISBN 978-7-5448-8031-2
Nature | Tree | Life | Poetry
Reading age: 6+
White Ravens issue: 2023
»Want to become a tree / with hundreds and thousands of leaves / all rustling in the breeze / and telling their stories in green.« The poetic imagery of trees is celebrated in this collection of children’s poems, but many other correlated images – flowers, forests, birds, nests, sun, moon, planting, singing – also play a vital role. Sound and rhythm echo the spirit and mood of the poems, reminding readers of the sensations of growing, residing, and being at home. Jinbo (b. 1935) is Professor Emeritus of Capital Normal University in Beijing and a renowned writer of children’s poems. His works appear frequently in primary school textbooks and other reading materials for children. His books include »Wo men qu kan hai« (Let’s go to see the sea), »Yu ren« (The rain men), and »Wu Diu diu de qi yu« (Wu Diudiu’s adventures). A winner of the National Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, Song Qingling Children’s Literature Award and many others, he was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1992 and 2022. [FW, ZX]