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Overview
A BOOK SENSE 76 SELECTION ACCELERATED READER PROGRAM SELECTION"This handsome picture book will be useful for encouraging children to play around with geometry."
-Booklist
"The emotions so clearly portrayed on each character's face echo those of the reader, who will finish this book with a broad smile."
-Children's Literature Comprehensive Database
A fierce warlord in China receives a ceramic tile as a gift. But when the tile shatters into seven pieces, he sentences the artist to the land's worst punishment. The artist proposes that a contest be held-whoever is clever enough to put the tile back together will be asked to live in the warlord's palace . . . and the artist's life will be saved.
The line of contestants stretches all the way from the castle to the river. Strangers have come from all over to try their luck at solving the puzzle. All of these people have ruined any chance of fresh fish for a little peasant boy and his father, who are hungry for dinner.
"Most Honorable Father . . . you are a poor man and a peasant, but you are very clever. Why don't you join the line of people and try to solve the warlord's puzzle?"
Together, Virginia Walton Pilegard and illustrator Nicolas Debon have earned great praise for the highly successful Warlord's Series, which includes The Warlord's Puzzle, The Warlord's Beads, The Warlord's Fish, The Warlord's Puppeteers, The Warlord's Kites, The Warlord's Messengers, and The Warlord's Alarm, all published by Pelican.
Virginia Walton Pilegard received a MA in education with a mathematics emphasis. She has worked as an elementary-school teacher and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the California Mathematics Council. She is also the author of The Emperor's Army, published by Pelican.
Nicolas Debon is a freelance illustrator based in France. In addition to the Warlord's Series, he has illustrated several other award-winning books, including two that were nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award, presented by the Canada Council for the Arts. Paintings from The Warlord's Puppeteers were displayed in La Maison des Contes et des Histoires in Paris, France.
Hoping to avoid punishment for breaking a beautiful tile that was his gift to a Chinese warlord, an artist suggests that the warlord hold a contest to see if anyone can mend it.
Synopsis
For five to eight year olds, this story set in ancient China tells of a young peasant boy who pieces a broken tile back together for the angry warlord. The pieces of the tile form into the shape of a tangram, which is used in teaching elementary geometry. Children are entertained with a beautifully illustrated story and also learn elementary shapes and how they fit together.
Publishers Weekly
This tale of the origin of the Chinese tangram grew out of Pilegard's thesis project for her M.A. in education. When an artist bestows his gift of a blue tile on a warlord, he drops it, breaking it into seven pieces ("a parallelogram, a square, and five triangles"). As the warlord prepares to mete out "my worst punishment," the artist postpones his fate by suggesting a contest. The warlord proclaims that whoever puts the tile back together will receive a treasure and come to live in the palace. People eager to try their skill soon line the road to the palace gate; where wise men fail, a poor peasant's son quietly completes the puzzle. Pilegard punctuates her prose with colorful description (e.g., the tile is "the rare blue of a winter sky when dark storm clouds part"), but the boy's solution is anticlimactic, requiring little deductive reasoning ("He put the two large triangles together. They looked like his father's hat"). The strength of Debon's (The Moon Festival) paintings lies in the details of clothing, landscape and architecture. Unfortunately, his characterizations rely on stereotype: the tile artist comes off as a stooge, a monk as a smiley-faced goon. Though the appeal is primarily for adults, young puzzlers may enjoy the traceable tangram pattern at book's end--but likely won't be back for repeated readings. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This tale of the origin of the Chinese tangram grew out of Pilegard's thesis project for her M.A. in education. When an artist bestows his gift of a blue tile on a warlord, he drops it, breaking it into seven pieces ("a parallelogram, a square, and five triangles"). As the warlord prepares to mete out "my worst punishment," the artist postpones his fate by suggesting a contest. The warlord proclaims that whoever puts the tile back together will receive a treasure and come to live in the palace. People eager to try their skill soon line the road to the palace gate; where wise men fail, a poor peasant's son quietly completes the puzzle. Pilegard punctuates her prose with colorful description (e.g., the tile is "the rare blue of a winter sky when dark storm clouds part"), but the boy's solution is anticlimactic, requiring little deductive reasoning ("He put the two large triangles together. They looked like his father's hat"). The strength of Debon's (The Moon Festival) paintings lies in the details of clothing, landscape and architecture. Unfortunately, his characterizations rely on stereotype: the tile artist comes off as a stooge, a monk as a smiley-faced goon. Though the appeal is primarily for adults, young puzzlers may enjoy the traceable tangram pattern at book's end--but likely won't be back for repeated readings. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Children's Literature -
A powerful warlord smiles when he receive a beautiful blue tile, but then the artist drops and breaks it. Its seven pieces, a parallelogram, a square, and five triangles seem to defy being mended into the original square. Threatened with the warlord's worst punishment, the artist suggests a contest. Thinking it an excellent idea, the warlord declares, "Anyone who can solve the puzzle of the tile will be given a great treasure and brought to live in my palace." The line of contestants wanders across the Japanese landscape to the river, where a fisherman and his son decide to try their luck. Striking illustrations in a bright palette of reds, greens, burnt oranges and gold leap out against a brown background and contrast nicely with the tile's pieces. The use of foreshortening and a wide variety of camera angles makes each page a visual surprise. The emotions so clearly portrayed on each character's face echo those of the reader, who will finish this book with a broad smile. 2000, Pelican Publishing Company, Ages 5 to 8, $14.95. Reviewer: Nancy TillySchool Library Journal
K-Gr 4-An artist presents an autocratic warlord with a beautiful blue tile, but when he accidentally drops it, it breaks into seven geometrical pieces. Terrified by cruel threats of punishment, he cannot arrange the pieces back into a square to mend them. The warlord then holds a contest, promising a reward to anyone who solves the puzzle. Crowds assemble, but no one, including a self-important scholar and an inscrutable monk, can reassemble the pieces. A poor fisherman's little boy at last solves the puzzle as he quietly plays with the shapes. No source is given for the incident, mentioned in the author's note, that inspired this tale about the origin of the tangram, believed to date back to the T'ang Dynasty (618-906). The illustrations reinforce the text's whimsical tone, presenting the characters as aliens in an operetta, striking static, exaggerated poses against plain backdrops, their faces contorted into melodramatic expressions of rage, fear, serenity, relief, and joy. Ann Tompert's Grandfather Tang's Story (Crown, 1990) uses characters that seem a bit more human to introduce tangrams in storytelling. The newer title's weaknesses-an improbable story, peopled with caricatures that speak in clich d dialogue-undermine whatever contributions it might make toward teaching geometry.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Childrens Book Watch
A Chinese warlord receives a ceramic tile as a gift and promptly sentences the artist who made it to death when the title is shattered into seven pieces. The desperate artist proposes that a contest be held. Whoever is clever enough to put the tile fragments back together will be asked to live in the warlord's palace -- and his own life would be spared. After an enormous multitude of people fail at the task, a little peasant boy figures out a novel and unexpected solution. Virginia Pilegard's The Warlord's Puzzle is a delightful, highly recommended picturebook story that is gorgeously illustrated with the full color, museum quality artwork of Nicholas Debon.—Childrens Book Watch