The Magic Pillow
Written and illustrated by: Demi
Elementary Grades
"In China, Ping is happy with his family’s modest circumstances until he meets a magician who amazes him with an illusion of diamonds. Suddenly Ping desires “money, power, fame, and everything life can offer,” but the magician cautions him, offering a pillow for the evening. Ping’s dreams show how wealth and power lead to an endless cycle of greed, envy, and war for him and his descendants. In the morning, Ping awakens, grateful for his humble life. Demi’s dainty, jewellike art is the perfect vehicle for this story, adopted from a Shen Jiji short story. Rendered in traditional Chinese paints and inks and framed in her characteristic gold borders, the pictures of Ping’s early life have a graceful simplicity while the nightmarish dream scenes intensify with entanglements. The concluding moral explains,“He who finds peace in his heart has found his palace of gold."
Publisher's Review
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