Book Review: Made in China by Deborah Nash

You know what kids need to learn as soon as they're reading? They need to learn about footnotes.

This is the book that teaches them about footnotes.

It tells, as most children's books do, a pretty simple story: a paper butterfly, left by a child in a park, is trying to get home. The butterfly asks a big paper dragon in the sky for help, and the dragon says, in essence, I'll give you a hand as soon as you answer this question: "What was made in China almost 2,000 years ago and is still used today?"

So the rest of the book is the butterfly wandering around China looking for the answer to the question, and learning about Chinese history and culture. Mostly in footnotes. OK, they're not literally footnotes, but every little tableau the butterfly drifts past (illustrated in wonderful paper-cutout style) is described in a little block of text that isn't part of the story and doesn't have to be read to little kids who don't care a lick about what carp symbolize or the role of pagodas in Chinese history.

Those who do care about these sorts of things (like your humble reviewer) will be delighted. Nash is a British woman who spent a bit of time living in China (10 months, according to her bio), and has brought exhibitions of Chinese papercuts and folk art around Europe. It's possible to come away from the book with the impression that every tradition in China is Buddhist (most aren't, or are only sort of Buddhist after-the-fact), but in general it's a great read and heavy on the "ain't China grand?" spirit that some of us find valuable in the rearing of children who are also grand.

This didn't enthrall Daughter as much as the Daniel Kirk books do, but she was still into it enough for multiple readings. Her father was really wishing he could follow the directions in the back to make his own paper butterfly, but he's a bad man who can't make time for interesting craft projects. Even ones with diagrams.

And if you want the answer to the dragon's question, you'll have to read the book.

It's available at Amazon (where there are also a few sample pages on display).