Description
Good dust jacket, has a wraparound illustration of Chinese children, Blue and black lettering on front cover and spine, price-clipped, wear at the head and foot of spine and edges of front cover, tape mark, tape mark effects dust jacket illustration, small tears to the edges, some chips. The Very Good binding is burnt orange cloth over boards, a black line illustration, lettering in black on cover and spine, light bumping and wear at corners. The binding is tight and pages are clean. The bright colorful illustrations by Esphyr Slobodkina can be found with turn of every page.
About the book: (from the dust jacket)
THE Flame, THE Breeze, and the Shadow, Written and illustrated by ESPHYR SLOBODKINA. THERE IS a warm, folktale quality about this story which takes place many years ago in a tiny village in China.
Word of the delicate beauty of a humble paper merchant’s three little daughters reached the ear of the great General Ming-Pa-Poo. The general, in spite of his wife’s disapproval summoned the three girls to his fine home to be brought up as “Perfect Young Ladies,” fit to marry his three sons. One day, the girls asked to be allowed to visit their parents Mrs. Ming, still feeling resentful, consented, but added three conditions, in the form of riddles, that seemed impossible to fulfill. She told the girls that if they failed, they would never be allowed to return home again.
The girls’ visit home was overshadowed by the thought that they would never be able to meet Mrs. Ming’s demands, but their father had other ideas. How he used the tools of his trade to find simple answers to the riddles makes the ending of this appealing story a happy surprise for all.
Lively, full-color illustrations reflect the charm of the Chinese setting and beautifully communicate the warm humor of the tale.
About the author/illustrator: (from the dust jacket)
ESPHYR SLOBODKINA was born in Russia, and was educated there and in Manchwria, where she lived for seven years before coming to this country. In the United States she studied at the National Academy of Design.
Miss Slobodkina was living in New York when she first began to illustrate children’s books. Very soon she started writing children’s books as well as illustrating them. Her first, a retelling of the folktale Caps for Sale, has become a classic.
Miss Slobodkina is also a painter, sculptor, and a textile, dress, and interior designer She is a founding member of both the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors and of the American Abstract Artists group, of which she is presently the treasurer. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of various museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
