Ruowen Wang, illustrated by Wei Xu,
Little Wen: I Want To See About That
Kevin & Robin Books, 2008.

Rating: A*

Little Wen has moved from the city to a mud house in a small village. The inquisitive little girl runs around the village to check things out and then plagues her mother with questions. When Mama buys some chicks, Wen wonders how Mama can tell which ones are girl chicks and which ones are boys. Her curiosity is further aroused when her neighbour Mei shaves off all her hair and tells Wen that her once thin yellowish hair will grow back "dark and thick and really long." Soon, Wen snips off the feathers from the chicks’ heads, making them all bald. After that, she tries experimenting with the tomcat, hoping that by giving it a haircut the tomcat will grow long hair and "become a lion." Will the chicks grow long hair? Will the tomcat become a lion? Only time may tell.

This is a gentle story about a young girl eager to explore the world and to determine the truth of things by way of her own unique experiments. While the story reads well in general, the writing could have been stronger, tighter, and more focussed by eliminating unnecessary words, phrases, paragraphs, and scenes. For instance, although the scene in which Wen saves some ants from drowning is sweet, it stops the flow of the story, particularly since it comes before her excited exploration of her new village. A few scenes seem awkward in the storytelling. For example, although it is fun to see an illustration of a half-bald cat, this does not seem to make sense since Mama sees Wen in ample time to prevent the girl from doing any damage to the cat. Wei Xu’s watercolour illustrations are wonderful, engaging and full of life and with touches of humour. Children will love to see the dynamic movements of Wen’s long braids of hair..

Thematic Links: Rural Life; China; Self-discovery

Ken Kilback
Vol. 15, number 4
April 2010

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.