Silent Lotus - Hardcover

Lee, Jeanne M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374369119 ISBN 13: 9780374369118

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1991

Synopsis

Although she cannot speak or hear, Lotus trains as a Khmer court dancer and becomes eloquent in dancing out the legends of the gods.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeanne M. Lee is the author and illustrator of many books, including The Song of Mu Lan and I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told. She lives in Massachusetts.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- Lotus loves nothing better than to mimic the graceful steps of the herons, cranes, and egrets that frequent the lake near her Cambodian home. But because she cannot hear or speak, she has no friends and is often sad and lonely. Her parents, hoping for a sign from the gods, take her to the temple of the city. There she is intrigued by the temple dancers. At the palace she catches the attention of the king, who agrees that she should learn the court dances; in time she becomes the most famous dancer in the Khmer kingdom. The quiet text, told in the third person, gives no sense of the frustrations Lotus must feel or of the hard work necessary to achieve her position, just as the stylized illustrations, with their flat, lifeless human figures, fail to capture the movement and vitality of Cambodian dances. The page layout is nevertheless effective. Brilliant colors of the countryside or court life are set off against the stark white of the opposite page, holding carefully centered text with a small drawing above, reminiscent of the reliefs at Angkor Wat. Several spreads are devoted entirely to illustration. Libraries serving Cambodian populations will want to consider this offering. --Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0374369119
• ISBN 13: 9780374369118
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 71