Bing's Cherries
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- €3.99
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- €3.99
Publisher Description
A modern American tall tale woven by a girl and her father about Ah Bing, the Chinese immigrant behind the Pacific Northwest's most delicious cherries.
You've heard of a Bing cherry, but did you know the story of the Chinese American immigrant for whom the dark, luscious cherry is named?
Long ago, Ah Bing was a father who travelled across the sea from China looking for work. It was in Oregon where he met a man who hired him to work in his orchards, where eventually, Bing cultivated the delicious cherries we know of today.
But what was it that made this man and the cherries he made so special? a young girl wonders as she sits together with her father, enjoying cherries from their backyard. Weaving together cultural memory, historical fact, and her own imagination, the young girl imagines a narrative of Ah Bing that is as larger than life and as sweet as his namesake.
With touching text and lush illustrations, Livia Blackburne and Julia Kuo forge an unforgettable Chinese American folktale that has largely been untold. The backmatter includes a letter from the author and illustrator, as well as a recipe!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Chinese immigrant to the U.S., whose name graces a popular cherry, is imagined in folkloric terms across this inventive picture book by Blackburne and Kuo. On summer afternoons, this book's unnamed young narrator climbs with their dad to pick cherries, and Daddy invariably mentions Ah Bing, a mythical figure who's "Chinese like us." At night, drawing from scant details, the child imagines Ah Bing as a man so tall "he needed two boats to carry him" from China to San Francisco. In Oregon, he's hired to work at an orchard, where his rich singing voice encourages trees to grow taller "just so they could listen." Combined with anecdotal-feeling narration, crisp digital illustrations that incorporate a limited palette make strong use of pattern and scale. It's an enchantingly rendered legend poised, per back matter, to sit "on the shelf between the Chinese myths and American folktales." Creator notes and recipes conclude. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8.
