Synopsis
A paper butterfly is lost and longing for home. A dragon offers her a ride home on his back — if she can solve the riddle “What was made in China 2000 years ago and is still used today?” To find the answer, she flits far and wide, to Beijing’s Forbidden City, to the Great Wall, and finally to the walled city of Xi’an. Just when she begins to despair, she meets another paper butterfly, who claims to have the riddle’s answer. Is it the right one? Lively collage illustrations introduce carp, pagodas, stone lions, and other elements of Chinese culture and family life.
Kirkus Reviews
Using cut-paper figures in, or at least reminiscent of, traditional styles, Nash lights briefly on Chinese history, folklore, culture, and geography. Seeking an answer to a dragon's riddle-"What was made in China almost 2000 years ago and is still in use today?"-a paper butterfly perches on a pagoda, poses the question to a carp, listens to tales of the Monkey King, flutters past the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the "chocolate soldiers" of Xi-an, then at last learns the solution (paper) from another paper butterfly. Intercut with explanatory comments and closing with a map, plus skimpy directions for prospective paper-cutters, this tries to cover far too many topics, doing justice to none. For a (somewhat) less superficial answer to the dragon's riddle, with similar glimpses into Chinese life, stick with Ying Chang Compestine's Story of Paper (2003), or conventional nonfiction. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)