The Great Race

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at St. Jerome’s College, University of
Waterloo.

In most pages of this truly elegant book, the text is set off in blocks
of soft colors demarcated by simple horizontal lines. Zhong-Yang
Huang’s splendid paintings represent the animals of the Chinese zodiac
in naturalistic postures and in settings that include mystical cities,
dark vistas, and foreshortened scenes of action.

In evoking the personalities of the various animals, the illustrations
cohere well with the story. A Chinese grandmother narrates to her
granddaughter the race of the animals of the Chinese zodiac to “Jade
City, the city of perpetual caring, peace, and never-ending opportunity
for all people.” Who wins the race is not important: what is crucial
is where each animal places and therefore is to be situated on the
zodiac.

The book ends with a chart of the Chinese calendar and the personality
traits of someone born in the year of a particular animal—a conclusion
that supports an interpretation of this richly suggestive story as an
allegory about human beings and their relationships. Highly recommended.