Shen of the Sea - 1926 Newbery Medal Winner

I'm afraid this was another drudge fest. Blah! How disappointing. And what's worse is that I waited too long to write my review and now I've forgotten most of the book. I think that says a lot in and of itself. But let me back up and give you the facts. Like last year's winner this is a collection of short stories that some white dude gathered on his exotic travels to the far east. Can you read my disdain? But what is odd is that unlike Tales from Silver Lands which is wildly unpopular this title gets remarkably better reviews (via Amazon and Goodreads). What the heck? It felt almost the exact same to me - maybe even a bit worse. Picking it up each night was a chore and the stories felt creaky and old fashioned (not in a good way). Ostensibly these tales were gathered from China and there was this sort of patronizing tone through out with ludicrous character names like Ah Mee. And it's really odd that I had such a strong negative reaction because I like a made-up folktale as much as the next person (the hysterical Tiki Tiki Tembo is not to be missed!) Unless you are an obsessive Newbery completist like myself I say avoid this one. There certainly have to be better Chinese folktale collections out there.

The one bright spot I should mention were the interesting silhouette illustrations by Else Hasselriis. I can't find any examples online or I'd share an image.