The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks

The book I did this week for my book talk is called, "The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks." This book is a cultural book that takes place in China. The main characters are the drake, the duck, Shozo, and Yasuko. From the illustrations in the book, the reader can tell that the drake is a vibrantly colored male duck and the duck is his mate. One morning when the drake is swimming on the pond, an evil Lord saw him and so loved his colors, demanded to capture him for his own. He asked his second in command, Shozo, to catch the beautiful bird but Shozo declined. The Lord was not happy with him but got other guards to do it instead. When he takes the drake home, he confines him to a very small cage and shows him off to all of his friends. A servant of the house, Yasuko, feels very bad for the drake and notices his health is declining. One night she steals him and takes the drake back home to his duck. Upon coming back she sees that the Lord blames Shozo for the drakes disappearance and strips him of his title, forcing him to clean waste and be a lowly servant for the rest of his days. Yasuko feels so bad she wants to fess up to the Lord but Shozo forbids it saying, "why should two suffer for one crime?" They quickly fall in love and get in trouble for doing so. When the Lord sentences them both to death, two mysterious people tell the lord that death is no longer a valid penalty and insists that they escort them to the kingdom where they will get a difference sentence. While on this journey, the two mystery people disappear, leaving Yasuko and Shozo in an abandoned old house. In the morning they find the drake and the duck and figure that a miracle has been done to save them. They spend the rest of their days in that little home where they have tons of kids and live happily ever after.

This book is an interesting one. I would recommend reading it to a third grade or above classroom because the words can get a bit difficult and there are a lot on each page. One aspect of the book that I like was that the story used cultural vocabulary, like drake, and that the illustrations made it easy for the reader to figure out on their own what the meanings are. Another aspect I liked is that the ending wasn't defined. What I mean is that they don't ever tell the reader if the drake and the duck magically turn into people and save Yasuko and Shozo. The reader must come to their own conclusions via the illustrations. This book really stresses the importancs of good illustrations. You can show this by reading the book to the class without showing the illustrations and see if they understand it. When they don't you can show them the pictures and stress the importance of this aspect.