A great rendition of beauty and the beast, but with many sociocultural twists. This story is a great way to talk about differences in areas across the world, as almost every region across the world has a similar story so by picking at the differences we can get a feel for what that group of people value over others. These tails often dive into some type of mythos as well and that could also be explored as a way to tie culture with society. ( )

A poor farmer's youngest daughter agrees to marry a fierce dragon in order to save her father's life.

This book is a dramatically illustrated Chinese retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with a twist. Seven, the seventh and most beautiful and talented daughter agrees to marry the dragon in order to save her father, after all six of her sisters refuse to sacrifice themselves. Of course, the dragon turns into a handsome prince after Seven professes her ability to see what is in his heart, rather than on his face. But, there is more to this fable. The prince is tested to see if his love can also see to the heart. As with most fairy tales, there is a "happily ever after." This book is worth the read to do a compare and contrast lesson with the original or other versions. ( )

Award winning author Laurence Yep writes The Dragon Prince: a Chinese Beauty and the beast story. The poor farmer must be saved and his youngest daughter 7 agrees to marry the dragon. He turns into a handsome prince. They live under the sea until one day 7 wishes to return home to her family. Sister 3 is jealous and tried to drown her. The prince must find Seven! A classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. ( )

Prolific Chinese-American children's author Laurence Yep - whose Dragonwings (1975) and Dragon's Gate (1993) were both Newbery Honor titles - presents a traditional tale from "Southern China" in this engaging picture-book. When the kind-hearted seventh daughter of a poor farmer, named Seven for her birth-order, saves the life of a little golden snake, she has no way of knowing that he is really a Dragon Prince from the kingdom under the sea, or that he will take her father hostage, in order to convince her to marry him (naturally, the farmer asks each of his daughters to make the sacrifice, but only Seven is willing). Rather than being afraid of or horrified by her new bridegroom, however, Seven is filled with wonder, and takes to her new underwater life. Until a visit home, and the jealousy of her sister, Three, puts all in jeopardy...

As will be apparent from its sub-title, this story is a variant of the Beauty and the Beast type tale - specifically: "King Dragon," which is type 433b in the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification system - and is distinctive, in that it features lovers who must each see past false appearances. I appreciated that aspect of the story, and was happy to read a variant of one of my favorite tale types from a non-European culture. Which is not to say that there aren't many non-European variants - see Betsy Hearne's Beauties and Beasts for an international collection - but not all of them make it into picture-book form.

Kam Mak's illustrations are vividly colorful, and quite beautiful, although I think there are one or two paintings here that miss the mark. I loved the depiction of the Dragon Prince, as a dragon, but the human figures were a little uneven. Seven herself sometimes looked soft and young, as when she was freeing the snake; and then sometimes she appeared rather old and tired, as in her scene when her husband is in human form, and she is handing him his slippers. I'm not sure why her appearance changes so markedly, but the unevenness of it distracted me. I also found myself wishing that Yep had given more details about his source material, as the brief note on the colophon only mentioned that the story was from the southern Chinese tradition.

Still, despite these minor criticisms, over all I really do love this book (which I own), both for its story and for (some of) its artwork. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to readers interested in variants of the "Enchanted Spouse" tale-type. ( )