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THE EMPEROR'S BIG GIFT by Dell Britt

THE EMPEROR'S BIG GIFT

By

Pub Date: June 13th, 1967
Publisher: Prentice-Hall

The splendor of endless rich gifts had long since palled upon the effete Emperor when India sent him an elephant; delighted and fascinated with its massiveness, he orders his best scholars to devise a means to weigh the beast. In this Chinese folk-tale, it is a small boy of low rank who comes up with the clever solution. The author draws precise images and creates mood, never losing a natural and amused tone. The illustrations are less skillful--wall-paper Orientalia with a pointless variation between cool and warm color tones (the same object is a different color on consecutive pages). A promising gift poorly wrapped.