1926 - Shen of the Sea

First things first: Shen of the Sea has the strangest opening lines of any children's book I've read:

"A shamelessly rainy day, my honorable Brother Chi."

"That is truth, Brother Cha. It rains perfectly hard. There will be plenty of leisure in which to beat the children."

Anyway, it's hard not to compare this to Tales from Silver Lands - both books are collections of short folk tales from specific parts of the world: Silver Lands from South America, Shen from China.

Tales from Silver Lands, to me, contains what I'd expect from folk tales and myths. Animals and nature are personified and talk with humans. Righteous people may be beaten down now, but are rewarded in the end. The good-hearted hero always slays the giant.

Shen of the Sea, on the other hand, doesn't always have a moral in its stories. That first story is about a very wicked child, and a father who doesn't discipline him at all. At the end, instead of learning his lesson, the child spills jam on a carving, throws it against the wall, and accidentally invents printing. He's remembered throughout history for it. The end.

I don't really care about whether a story has a moral or not; it's just frustrating when a main character doesn't go through any changes or challenges over the course of the tale. A lot of the stories were disappointing in that sense. This is my least favorite of the Newberys so far.