a Cinderella-like tale with a sparkling ending
Written: May 16 '02 (Updated May 17 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: a sweet love story which contains a number of positive morals
Cons: some darker aspects of the story keep it from being bedtime appropriate
The Bottom Line: Eloquently told and beautifully illustrated this is a classic story with ancient roots that will surely become a family favorite.
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| jiastar's Full Review: Lily & the Wooden Bowl: A Japanese Folktale |
I purchased this title because I like to expose my daughter to other cultures. Other lands, religions, skin-tones, etc. It is important to me that she look at people as people and not judge them by what land they come from, what color they are, or what name they call the Divine.
At the time she was 5 and the book was a bit too "big" for her and she settled for looking at the gorgeous pictures. Now, approaching 8, I expect this title to become quite well-worn and well-loved.
While not a long book, only 16 pages have text, this is a complex story. There are a number of characters and a flurry of events. Paragraphs can be a bit on the long side and sentence structure seems to be more about being eloquent than being easy to understand.
However, this would make a nice book to be read aloud as the language is truly lovely. There is a nice flow to the book and many descriptive turns of phrase.
I would have to say that readers younger than 8 would have a hard time with this book, not so much because vocabulary issues. But, because, it is not a light and easy read. Younger children, with shorter attention spans, might find this title too much.
The story - summarized
"Long ago when Japan was still known as "The Island of the Dragonfly""...... a young girl named Lily lived with her Grandmother, Aya. They were extremely poor.
Now, Lily was beautiful. So beautiful that Aya was afraid that men would be so tempted by her beauty that they would spoil her innocence. On her deathbed, she made Lily promise to always wear a lacquered bowl on her head. The bowl came down to Lily's nose, and while strange to see, it covered most of her face and thus hid her beauty from the world. She also gave Lily gifts she hoped would bring luck.
One day after Aya's death, Lily is asked to leave the rice fields where she worked and become a house servant for a wealthy land-owner. She is promised kind treatment, that of a daughter, and need only nurse the lady of the house, Matsu, back to health.
Matsu, however, was apparently more sick in spirit than in body. She lacked simple kindness and despising Lily on sight, was determined to drive her from the home in disgrace.
The son of the house, Kumaso, despite being told lies about Lily's appearance and intelligence, finds that he cannot help but admire her grace. Eventually, having never spoken to her, begins to fall in love. He then begins to talk to Lily each day, and as the seasons change he falls deeper in love, and she finds that she loves him as well.
However, Kumaso wants to see Lily's face before they wed ... and for a fleeting moment he manages a glance. Her beauty is such that it roots him to the spot and gives him the courage to tell his parents that he would have no one but Lily as his bride.
Angered beyond reason, Matsu decides that the only way to end the matter is to assign Lily a task. One that she can never finish but must, in order for the marriage to go on. She must turn 1 grain of rice into enough to feed 100 guests.
However, thanks to one of the gifts her Aya left her, or perhaps just due to the magic of the love behind the gift, Lily manages to pass the test. Turning now to magic of a less positive kind, inspired not by love but by darker emotions, Matsu calls rats to come and eat the rice.
However, it is this act that is her undoing. For her husband finally sees through to the dishonest and cruel heart within and sends her away and calls for the wedding to be held that very afternoon.
Lily tries to remove the bowl as she prepares to be wed. But, it will not budge. Her groom, full of love for her, calls for the wedding to go on anyway ... for she is dear to him with or without the bowl.
At the ceremony's end, Lily lifts the wine cup to her lips, to drink the sips that will show them to be married, at last. It is at that moment that the bowl shudders and breaks.... revealing a shower of rare and precious jewels ... but also the exquisite treasure of Lily's radiant beauty.
The Illustrations
These are quite lovely. Lots of earth tones and shades of indigo.
The faces are drawn so as to see, yes Lily's loveliness, but also the drawn face of Aya, the frown lines of Matsu, the sweet smile of Kumaso.
There is one picture, where Matsu is calling the rats in which her face glows in the candlelight ... she is surrounded by the red glowing eyes. Enough to make most anyone shudder a bit. Truly evocative.
However, unlike many children's books, the pictures serve only to compliment the telling of this tale. It is the words which truly paint the pictures.
The original story
This story was inspired by an old Japanese folktale. However, according to liner notes, significant changes were made from the original.
In the original tale:
-- no characters were named
-- "LIly" lives with her parents, not grandmother
-- the gifts left to Lily do not exist
-- no test is given by the mother-in-law
My Thoughts
I like fairy tales. The conflict of good vs. evil. Magic and mystery. It's wonderful.
And here is a tale of a young woman who rises out of poverty to find not only a man who can provide her with material comfort, but who loves her truly.
He does not love her for what she can do for him, nor what she can bring to the union, he does not even love her for her beauty. He simply loves her for the person that she is.
And it is this love, and the love her Aya had for her, which allow her to overcome the dark forces bent on her sorrow and destruction.
Now granted, in the real world true love is not rewarded by a miraculous shower of jewels. But, even in the best of relationships there are hardships. And where there is love ... there comes the ability to face and overcome them.
We also see a love story, based not on a handsome price finding a lovely princess and deciding to wed based on no more than a look. Here we see a couple observing one another, learning about one another, talking, falling in love and deciding to wed -- even though the heroine wears a bowl on her head. What a great lesson for girls that love, when it finds you, will not care what you look like. A wonderful lesson in this age of 8 year old anorexics and 15 year old cosmetic surgery patients.
As a side note, this could be a good title for those who wish to expose their daughters to the idea of remaining chaste up until marriage. For it is this purpose that the bowl serves. It does not only help Lily find a man who will love her for reasons aside from her beauty, but it keeps her hidden until the moment she is bound by vows. She remains innocent until she becomes a bride.
And, the final lesson in this book, in my mind the most important, is that, in the end, love and kindness will be rewarded and greed, cruelty, malice and other hurtful ways will be punished in one form or another.
All in all not a bad little book.
Negatives?
While this is a love story, which like all good ones, works out in the end; this is not a light bedtime tale.
The entire segment dealing with the rats was quite dark. Magic being used to call forth beasts to do evil deeds. This is not something I necessarily want read prior to dreamtime.
And dare I say it there is that one reference to sex when the grandmother expresses a fear of Lily losing her innocence to a man.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jiastar
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Location: Monmouth County, NJ
Reviews written: 368
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A wife ... a mom ... and a Witch
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