The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast Tale

My granddaughter's favorite Disney Film lately is Beauty and the Beast. She has watched enough times that she should know every line by now. A couple of weeks ago she asked if there were any Beauty books with lots of pictures. So I went looking and found several. This one was among them. This is the Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast. It's a nicely told tale where beast is a dragon and there are 7 daughters. Number Three is jealous of number Seven who is the heroine of this tale. The illustrations are nicely done. The people look almost like photographs they are so realistic. A couple of them are a bit dark and difficult to see the details, but there are a lot of them.It was not my granddaughter's favorite among those I purchased, she rather liked those where belle was outfitted in beautiful gowns. But she did like this story and I appreciated that the story was adapted for a different culture.

I read this ONCE when I was a little girl and never forgot it. So I was thrilled when I saw it on Amazon. The book got to me in good shape and right away. The illustrations are truly beautiful, some breathtaking and the story is a lovely example of Chinese folklore as retold by Lawrence Yep. My childhood recollections were not let down. Five stars!

We all know different versions of Cinderella, but versions of Beauty and the Beast are a little harder to locate. In this Chinese version Laurence Yep presents with basic story with elaborate details twisting it out of Europe to Asia. Kam Mak's illustrations assist in telling the story and add depth to the imagery. A wonderful read.

This is a beautiful book! The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous! The story is timeless and it would make an excellent gift.

I have a 14yrs old that loves this book for the last 8yrs and enjoys sitting with us as we read it to his 4yr old baby sister! It's a beautiful story with fantastic images!

My daughter loves it!

I’m feeling so frustrated trying to find stories or Asian heritage to share with my son that aren’t terrible.This is another horrible story with violent terrible message. One day a dragon threatens to kill a man unless he gives the dragon one of his daughters to marry. Daughter 7 married the dragon and says something like he is kind on the inside. Kind people do not use coercion and threats to get someone to marry them. But whatever. The dragon is actually a handsome prince. Somehow the fact that he is handsome makes his actions ok? Daughter 7 misses her family and wants to visit them, and her prince husband “allows” it because basically she is a prisoner with Stockholm Syndrome. While visiting her family, her sister #3 is petty, jealous, and murders her so she can disguise herself as 7 and live with the prince.7 actually wasn’t murdered — she survived and is rightly heart broken that her family betrayed her, and her idiot husband objectified her so much that he couldn’t even tell who his wife was from some other girl who was wearing his wife’s clothes. Prince does suspect that 3 isn’t 7, so he threatens to murder 7’s entire family if she doesn’t return. I can accept that 7 has Stockholm Syndrome and still loves her murdeorus, raging, cruel, controlling husband, but this is not the kind of love that should be put on a pedestal for children, especially little girls. Maybe a child who is 16 years old could critically read this story, but this is not for children under 8.I want the stories I share with my son to model true love — not ersatz love based on abuse, threats, coercion, and violence. I want the stories I share with my son to model cooperation and interdependence among his family and friends — not petty jealousy, competition and betrayal. I want my son to judge people’s character based on their actions. I don’t want him thinking that people are good people just because they happen to be ugly and beastly. Sometimes ugly beastly people are bad people and do bad things. Finally, I’m not a goody two shoes — if there is to be betrayal in stories, let it be for a glorious reason like world peace, not something petty like “I want to wear pretty dresses, so I’ll murder my own sister so I can.”

I can't really speak for the cultural accuracy of this book, but I do trust the name of Laurence Yep. They have done quite a few children's books I've loved, so I am willing to bet they did their best to get things accurate with the artist.As for the story itself, it's you're pretty standard re-imagining of Beauty and the Beast. This is more in line with the original telling of the tale, where there's a good bit of peril and treachery for the heroine to overcome.I'd say that, if you're looking for a book with a bit of cultural education, this isn't a good fit. It doesn't teach all that much, and the culture it shows is long since gone. Stick to books in a more modern era. But it all you want is something a bit different from your standard fairy tale, this would be a nice change.

Dieses englischsprachige Kinderbuch finde ich bezaubernd und ist für alle Kinder, die sich für Märchen aus aller Welt begeistern.Inspiriert durch das französische Volksmärchen "Die Schöne und das Biest" kreierte der Autor eine hübsche Geschichte im Stil eines altchinesischen Märchens.HandlungEine gütige Bauerstochter bewahrt eine kleine Schlange davor getötet zu werden.Sie ahnt nicht dass die Schlange in Wahrheit ein Drache ist, der sie auf die Art auf die Probe gestellt hat.Dieser Drache taucht in seiner vollen Größe auf und fordert die Bauerstochter auf seine Frau zu werden.Sie ist bereit mit ihm zu gehen um ihre Familie zu schützen.In seinem Unterwasserreich verwandelt sich der Drache in Gegenwart des Mädchens in einen Prinzen und das Mädchen erwidert seine Gefühle.Die englische Sprache lässt sich sehr gut lesen und ist ideal für Kinder, die gerade Englisch lernen.Die Illustrationen finde ich sehr kunstvoll.Die Drachendarstellung gefällt mir sehr gut und auch die weiteren bildlichen Darstellungen.Für alle kleinen und großen Märchenfans.