The Rainbow People by Laurence Yep, illustrated by David Wiesner [in What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature]
A collection of 20 folktales, adapted by Yep from age-old Chinese lore, including stories about a gambler turned professor of smells, a dead father who visits his beloved daughter nightly, dragons trapped in human bodies, a white mouse who helps her pitiful mistress, and an old jar that forever provides rice.
As Yep writes in an author’s note, these stories were a link back to the homeland for many of the early Chinese American immigrants who were struggling to survive and make a new life in the U.S.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Middle Grade
Published: 1989
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