Judge Rabbit and the Tree Spirit: A Folktale from Cambodia

Cathy Spagnoli has again done an excellent job of adapting a spoken folk tale into a picture book text - a task that is much more difficult than it appears. Nancy Hom's illustrations include the Khemer text. While few will be able to read the Khemer, it is an excellent way to introduce children to the concept of different alphabets. The tale itself is a simple tale of a newlywed heading off to war only to have a tree spirit impersonate the groom to the bride. When the true groom returns, a wise rabbit serves a judge to set the world back in order. As with many of the animal folktales, there is a gentle moral to the story ... far gentler than the Western Aesop tradition.