Overview
Doko is only a simple basket. It is not only grain from the field that he carries—he has also carried his master's child, and wood for the fire. He was there when the child became a man and married. And he very nearly had to carry the grandfather away forever. Luckily, someone wise beyond their years spoke up and made it possible for Doko to carry the grandfather home again instead.
As ever, Ed Young has taken a simple fable and made it into a masterpiece of stunning illustration and expert storytelling. This beautiful and unique book celebrates the generations with great originality.
A Nepalese basket tells the story of its use through three generations of a family.
Synopsis
Doko is only a simple basket. It is not only grain from the field that he carries—he has also carried his master's child, and wood for the fire. He was there when the child became a man and married. And he very nearly had to carry the grandfather away forever. Luckily, someone wise beyond their years spoke up and made it possible for Doko to carry the grandfather home again instead.
As ever, Ed Young has taken a simple fable and made it into a masterpiece of stunning illustration and expert storytelling. This beautiful and unique book celebrates the generations with great originality.
Publishers Weekly
Young's (Lon Po Po) mixed-media artwork is stunning in this exquisitely designed book, but the often confusing, moralistic adaptation of a Nepalese folktale may be too inaccessible for some readers. As the ending suggests, the book tells how "Wangal's love and respect for his grandfather inspired and transformed the whole village in how to treat elders." Unfortunately, the story is told somewhat awkwardly in first-person by the family's large basket, Doko (which means "basket" in Nepalese). Doko witnesses the events and features prominently in the story's resolution, but the basket acting as narrator serves to distance readers from the characters and makes for some clunky explanations. When the aged grandfather, Yeh-yeh, becomes a nuisance by inadvertently setting the house afire, Wangal's parents decide to leave the man on the temple steps for the priests to tend. Like an amateur thespian, Doko asks readers, "What could I, a basket, do!" As his father carries Yeh-yeh away in the basket, young Wangal exposes his father's cruelty with his cathartic request: he asks his father to make sure he brings Doko back, because then he "won't need to buy another Doko when you are old and it is time to leave you on the temple steps." Accompanied by artistically sophisticated and emotionally powerful illustrations, the brief text mostly serves to summarize the story, and devotes little room to the relationships between characters. Despite the uplifting message and gilt-edged pages framing dramatically appealing artwork, this intergenerational story ultimately disappoints. Ages 4-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Young's (Lon Po Po) mixed-media artwork is stunning in this exquisitely designed book, but the often confusing, moralistic adaptation of a Nepalese folktale may be too inaccessible for some readers. As the ending suggests, the book tells how "Wangal's love and respect for his grandfather inspired and transformed the whole village in how to treat elders." Unfortunately, the story is told somewhat awkwardly in first-person by the family's large basket, Doko (which means "basket" in Nepalese). Doko witnesses the events and features prominently in the story's resolution, but the basket acting as narrator serves to distance readers from the characters and makes for some clunky explanations. When the aged grandfather, Yeh-yeh, becomes a nuisance by inadvertently setting the house afire, Wangal's parents decide to leave the man on the temple steps for the priests to tend. Like an amateur thespian, Doko asks readers, "What could I, a basket, do!" As his father carries Yeh-yeh away in the basket, young Wangal exposes his father's cruelty with his cathartic request: he asks his father to make sure he brings Doko back, because then he "won't need to buy another Doko when you are old and it is time to leave you on the temple steps." Accompanied by artistically sophisticated and emotionally powerful illustrations, the brief text mostly serves to summarize the story, and devotes little room to the relationships between characters. Despite the uplifting message and gilt-edged pages framing dramatically appealing artwork, this intergenerational story ultimately disappoints. Ages 4-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
Doko, a large basket, tells this folktale rich with the life of a Nepalese farmer's family as it teaches a lesson to ponder. Yeh-yeh chooses the basket for his wife Nei-nei to carry their baby while working in the fields. As the boy grows, the basket goes with him on his chores. When he marries, he uses Doko to proudly carry the bride's dowry to their new home. Their baby Wangal is carried into the fields in the basket until Yeh-yeh breaks his hip. Then he, Wangal, and Doko stay home together. As time passes, Wangal's parents decide that Yeh-yeh is too old and feeble. It is time to leave him on the temple steps for the priests to feed. Wangal's father is taking Yeh-yeh in Doko to the temple when Wangal makes him realize what he is doing. He is ashamed, and his change transforms "the whole village in how to treat elders." Gouache, pastels, and collage combine with gold borders and end-papers to create double-page scenes spilling over with emotion. We burn in a sandy, drought-ravaged landscape. We feel the tragedy of Yeh-yeh's fall in the dark blues of the picture. Young's drawing incorporates the subtle elegance of Asian scrolls with the expressive force of Western art. He creates a cast we believe in whether presented in close-up portraits or simply sitting and smoking a water pipe. It takes no words, only tears in the father's eyes to show us his transformation. 2004, Philomel Books/Penguin Young Readers Group, Ages 5 to 9.—Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz