The Journey of Ching Lai

The boy was funny. What I learned was not to play with other peoples pets and not to take things that aren’t yours. A man was nice and shared with the little boy. (What my son thought about the book.)

I read this aloud to my oldest in kindergarten and first grade. They were fascinated by it! It led to so many discussions (what should you do if this happened to you? Why in this culture are boys treated differently? What is a pilgrimage and so we have anything similar in our beliefs?)

I was not a fan of this book for a few reasons. The main character is the only boy of 3 children. The second page talks about how the parents “let him sleep when he was lazy and gave in to him when he teased” and talks about how he is spoiled and favored amongst his sisters. This is not a message I want my girls reading when they have one brother. The boy goes off with a strange man to his home (like the number one thing I teach my kids not to do) and his only punishment is being sent home with a new toy. His sisters at the end are reminded “they belonged in the house with their mother.” It also mentions other “gods” like the kitchen god, etc, which I just skipped over because my kids aren’t old enough to understand other religions yet. This was our first library book purchase and it was disappointing.

Sweet tale of a young boy coming to appreciate the life he was given in the mountains instead of wishing for a different life by the sea.
Note: The book talks about Buddhism and White Cloud Temple that pilgrims come to visit.

My son enjoyed reading this book. He is reading at a level 3 and this was perfect. He read it on his own, and only had to stop a couple of times to sound out words he didn’t know. He said he would recommend this book to other kids!