世界・海外・国外の文学賞

← 受賞作品一覧に戻る
Li Lun, Lad of Courage (Newbery Honor Book)

ジョン・ニューベリー・メダル(ニューベリー賞)

Li Lun, Lad of Courage (Newbery Honor Book)

Carolyn E. Treffinger

中国の村を舞台に、海を恐れる少年リ・ルンが山での過酷な課題に向き合い、孤独と努力のなかで勇気を身につけていく物語。

勇気成長試練中国の村

作品情報

怖れを抱えたままでも、人は試練の中で変わっていける。

海への恐れから村で臆病者とみなされた少年が、山でのほとんど不可能に見える課題に挑む。厳しい自然と孤独のなかで、忍耐、誇り、家族との関係が少しずつ変化していく。

書籍情報

出版社
Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books
発売日
1995-10-01
ページ数
96ページ
言語
英語
サイズ
12.83 x 0.89 x 19.56 cm
ISBN-13
9780802774682
ISBN-10
0802774687
価格
2383 JPY
カテゴリ
洋書/Children's Books/Action & Adventure

A Newbery Honor book, Li Lun, Lad of Courage is a touching survival story about resilience and hard work. After Li Lun is unable to overcome his fear of the sea and fails to learn how to fish, he is branded a coward by his family and village and banished to a barren mountaintop. No one has been able to farm on this land in generations, but Li Lun must make his rice seedlings flourish before he is allowed to return home. Can he win the battle against the elements, wild animals, and his own loneliness? This classic tale combines adventure and heart to illustrate the importance of courage, grit, and perseverance.

レビュー

  • Great book. Was delivered within the time frame that was stated.

  • Ten-year-old Li Lun lives in the Village of Three Firs on Blue Shark Island off the coast of China with his fisherman father Teng Lung, his mother Wang Lun, and his three younger brothers and baby sister. At age ten, Li Lun is supposed to make his first voyage on the fishing boat with his father. However, the boy is strangely afraid of sea water and refuses to go. His father slaps him, calls him a coward, and banishes him to the "Sorrow Mountain" or Lao Shan with seven grains of rice. As punishment, Li Lun must plant the rice and grow seven times as many grains as he was given. From the wise man Sun Ling he learns that it will take him four moon changes or 120 days to grow the rice. But Sun Ling also reminds him, "There are other things than fishing." Other boys of the village taunt Li Lun, but with his supplies, including a satchel of food prepared by his mother, he trudges up the mountain to brave the gulls, the rats, the wind, the rain, the sun, and his own loneliness. Will he succeed in his goal? Can Li Lun prove to be a lad of courage? This book won a Newbery Honor Award in 1948. There are references to traditional Chinese beliefs in "spirits," but in general the story illustrates not only courage but also love, respect, adventure, hardship, and perseverance. One "professional" reviewer called it a "Flat story that contains little drama or excitement," saying, "The boy's extraordinary accomplishment and sacrifice sounds understated to modern ears. It almost reads like child abuse." One may not appreciate the father's reaction, but children need to learn that life isn't always fair, and we must be careful not to judge all the practices of other cultures from the past, and the literature which records them, by our modern sensibilities. Li Lun, Lad of Courage, though it may have little excitement, at least to kids raised on Star Wars, still exhibits a good deal of drama, and is a wonderful look into life in old China. It would make a great fictional complement to a study of Chinese history.

  • A short but thoughtful story. My class have enjoyed it. Great that you advised me of the story in the first place and that it came so quickly.

  • Good book fast shipping!

  • Li Lun: Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger was a very interesting book! Li Lun is afraid of the sea. His father gets upset and calls him a coward. The boys in the village tease him, too. So his father sends him up to a big mountaintop with a small bag of food and a few rice seedlings. He has to grow rice there but no one has grown rice there in a long time. He can show that he has many kinds of courage! I like adventure books so I liked this book. If you like adventure books or if your child is studying about China, you might enjoy this book as well. (submitted by an 11 year old)

関連する文学賞