Ed Young, author, illustrator
Publisher: Philomel; First Edition (October 17, 1995)
ISBN-13 : 978-0399227318
It happened that the storehouse of a certain merchant was besieged by ants. He proposes flooding the pests, but his kindhearted son, Ho Kuan, seeks a more peaceful way. In a dream, the son is guided to a shining ant kingdom. Granted a vision of the value of even the humblest lives, he’s able to avert ant annihilation. Based on an ancient Chinese folktale, the book is illustrated with a modest, muted charm imbued with ocher in keeping with the story’s restrained and respectful mood.
As in Young’s Caldecott Honor Book Seven Blind Mice (1992), the exquisite illustrations for this southern Chinese folktale express the changing point of view that is the heart of the story. Ho Kuan, a strong and gentle young scholar, becomes part of an ant colony in a dream. He goes on a long journey across wide plains and through thick forests to a beautiful kingdom, where he finds love and defeats the enemy. When he returns home, he wakes at his desk to find that it was all a dream—but a trail of ants across his papers leads him to hidden treasure. The double-spread pictures in gray and sepia shades play with the theme of shifting perspective and shadowy transformation. Intense flashes of color make us focus on detail with sudden close-ups of hands, ears, eyes, and tears. Children are fascinated by ants in all their intense activity, and this story makes us imagine what the world might be like for one of its tiniest creatures. The dedication is to Jung and to Saint Francis, and although kids can’t articulate the myth of the inner quest, they will feel Ho’s sense of wonder and connection.
—Hazel Rochman, Booklist