"Bound"
By: Donna Jo Napoli
Realistic Fiction/Fantasy
Grades 6/7
186 pages
Ever wonder where the Cinderella story comes from? Well, it has many origins around the world, but one of them is China. In China, small feet used to be associated with beauty and so girls' feet were bound to make them smaller. This led to all sorts of physical problems for them. In "Bound," we follow the story of Xing Xing, a girl who must live with her unfriendly step-mother and half-sister after the death of her beloved father. Xing Xing does all the work for the household -- hauling water, cleaning, finding food -- without so much as a thank you from her step-mother. Instead, she gets insulted, called "Lazy One." Her half-sister, Wei Ping, has recently had her feet bound in order to help her find a husband, and she is in too much pain to notice much of what is going on or to be kind to her sister. Xing Xing finds comfort in her daily visits to the stream, where a beautiful white coy fish appears for her and seems to befriend her. She also finds solace in practicing her calligraphy and poetry. When Wei Ping becomes ill with infection after an accident with her feet, Xing Xing is sent on a seemingly impossible mission to find the traveling medicine man and bring her sister the help she desperately needs. Will Xing Xing be forever confined to the role of servant girl, or will she have a chance at a life of her own, in which she is free to be who she is and do what she loves? The last part of the book definitely moves into the realm of fantasy and fairy tale, which is why I described the genre as being both realistic fiction and fantasy.
*Note to any squeamish readers -- there are a couple of fairly graphic injury scenes described in the book, so if you are upset by these things it might not be a good choice for you.
By: Donna Jo Napoli
Realistic Fiction/Fantasy
Grades 6/7
186 pages
Ever wonder where the Cinderella story comes from? Well, it has many origins around the world, but one of them is China. In China, small feet used to be associated with beauty and so girls' feet were bound to make them smaller. This led to all sorts of physical problems for them. In "Bound," we follow the story of Xing Xing, a girl who must live with her unfriendly step-mother and half-sister after the death of her beloved father. Xing Xing does all the work for the household -- hauling water, cleaning, finding food -- without so much as a thank you from her step-mother. Instead, she gets insulted, called "Lazy One." Her half-sister, Wei Ping, has recently had her feet bound in order to help her find a husband, and she is in too much pain to notice much of what is going on or to be kind to her sister. Xing Xing finds comfort in her daily visits to the stream, where a beautiful white coy fish appears for her and seems to befriend her. She also finds solace in practicing her calligraphy and poetry. When Wei Ping becomes ill with infection after an accident with her feet, Xing Xing is sent on a seemingly impossible mission to find the traveling medicine man and bring her sister the help she desperately needs. Will Xing Xing be forever confined to the role of servant girl, or will she have a chance at a life of her own, in which she is free to be who she is and do what she loves? The last part of the book definitely moves into the realm of fantasy and fairy tale, which is why I described the genre as being both realistic fiction and fantasy.
*Note to any squeamish readers -- there are a couple of fairly graphic injury scenes described in the book, so if you are upset by these things it might not be a good choice for you.