The Cricket Warrior: A Chinese Tale

This is a story about a poor farming family and their emperor who loved to watch cricket fights. The Emperor ordered a new tax to be paid by everyone and this tax was to be paid for in crickets. The father was worried because of little rain the past 3 years produced little money and no money to pay his taxes. The Cheng family's only hope would be to catch a fighting cricket. One evening the father hear the chirp of a cricket and called for his son to be a bamboo tube and they caught a nice big cricket! The son didn't see the cricket and just wanted to take a peek at it, and when he did the cricket got free and off the son when chasing after the cricket. The son followed the cricket until he was so tired he could go no further. All of a sudden a voice spoke and asked the book what was wrong. The boy told the man his story and said he'd do anything to get the cricket back. The old man asked if the boy would take the place of the cricket and he replied if only I could. The next morning the father had a small red cricket hop into his hand... his was really his son. I'm not going to give the ending away, but I really enjoyed this retelling of an ancient Chinese tale. At the very end of the book is information on when the "Fighting Cricket" was recorded and information on it's original author Pu Songling. There is also a glossary, but it is only English word your child might not be familar with .