In Asian culture, lotus flowers are revered for their ability to persevere, so a lotus pond is an apt location for little Tate to persist through his troubles in Judy Cicero's story, Tate and the Lotus Pond: A Fantasy.
This fairy tale (author's description) for older children is ushered in by Tate disobeying his mother and exploring a lotus pond when she falls asleep. Shortly after starting his journey, he's befriended by a baby spider, Little-One, who is lost and looking for his home web. Tate agrees to help his new chum, but the way there is not so easy, for there are all kinds of evil creatures standing in their way, including a bully fish, a rogue turtle, and a team of sumo snails.
I found Tate and the Lotus Pond to be a nice, little yarn with just enough suspense to keep the younger set interested. Even though the bully fish and others are painted as the duo's enemies, they're not written so fiercely as to frighten the book's readers. The friendship between the two protagonists is also somewhat realistic, as the two don't always see eye to eye. Another clever relationship included in the story is Tate's acquaintanceship with a fairy named Imagination; this latter familiarity leads to quite a few play-on-word moments wherein Tate talks about his friend, Imagination, when it is clear that the author is aiming to encourage a sense of imagination in children. At one point, Little-One is envious, noting that he only has an imagination with “a little 'i'."
In From the Author, Cicero noted that she took pains to authenticate "the use of Japanese plants, animals, ceremonies, traditions and culture," and I admired her attention to detail. She also started each chapter with a relevant haiku, many of them penned by the creator of haiku poetry, Basho. I thought these were unobtrusive and interesting ways to teach readers. Additionally, some of the words used are fairly complex, so the book acts as a fun vocabulary lesson as well.
Since this is a book for youngsters, there are pictures throughout the narrative. They're placed at the end of each chapter and depict an important moment that's yet to come in the following chapter. The drawings are colorful and sure to catch any reader's eye, but many of the pictures don't quite capture the descriptions given. For instance, one chapter notes that "all" of the sumo snails are wearing white padded belts around their middles, yet only one of the illustrated snails wears such a belt. In this same picture, the snails' horns are all the same size, though the text notes that each snail has one long horn and one short one. Elsewhere, the images of some ants don't quite meet their descriptions. While some children may not notice, perceptive kids are sure to recognize the discrepancies.
As fun a sojourn as Tate and the Lotus Pond was, the text was not without its faults. First, the font was way too small, and because the pages were loaded as images rather than text, I was unable to zoom in or change the font size on any of the devices that I tried. Having to nearly squint at the pages took away from my enjoyment. The myriad of grammatical errors also pulled me out of the story on occasion. The typographical mishaps included punctuation missteps, missing words, and - most egregiously - misspellings of characters' names. There was also an inconsistency where Tate asked Little-One how he knew about his Imagination when Tate had told him about her a few pages before.
All things considered, I thought this was a cute little story that, sadly, missed a few beats. Therefore, I am rating Tate and the Lotus Pond 3 out of 4 stars. While I think children who've graduated to chapter books would like the story, I hesitate to recommend it in its current condition. Youngsters of this age are learning the ins and outs of writing, so they shouldn't read a book this riddled with errors. However, because the story is a good one and educational, I do recommend that parents read it alongside their children, noting that the grammar is not quite up to par.
- Shiki, 1867-1902Lotus leaves in the pond
Ride on water
Rain in June
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Tate and the Lotus Pond
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