Chasing the Sun, Burning the Heavens

This is an Eastern myth that’s perfect for reading with your children. It isn’t childish at all; adults will be left speechless. Kuafu is a “problem adult”: he’s thirty-five and still chasing the sun, has no spiritual powers, and is considered crazy by the whole city. Then he finds Xu’er, who fell from the sky while digging a hole through it. The child’s dream is to find where the sun goes to sleep. Five more problem kids eventually join the group. Bai Zheng, who loves talking back, discovers that the supposedly infallible laws of Heaven are wrong. Xuan Yuan, who can’t cry, remembers the past for his people after their memories are stolen. Qing Wu, who can never wake up, wants to call her parents out of their dreams. The hot-tempered Chi Xi turns the hottest flames into the coziest blankets. And little Huang Yue, who’s always getting beaten up, just laughs and says, “I’m chubby, I can take it.” This isn’t a monster-fighting squad; it’s a bunch of kids from any classroom, the ones people say “don’t follow the rules.” The best lessons about raising children all come from Kuafu, this “foolish dad.” He doesn’t teach supernatural powers or dish out pep talks. When the children make mistakes, he steps in front of them; when they make decisions, he trusts them first. On the day the heavens burn and the world is destroyed, the children use a revised book of laws, a tree that doesn’t lull people to sleep, a song that awakens the whole sea, a blanket of fire that doesn’t burn, and a wall of people who use their words instead of their fists to block the white light with which Heaven’s law would restart the world. The ending has made many people cry: Kuafu becomes a mountain, his staff grows into a peach grove, and the children each return home, planting flowers in the scorched earth. There’s a mini-climax in every episode, and so many memorable lines you could copy them into an essay. For parents who want to introduce their children to “Chinese-style heroes” without preaching, this is the book for you.