A LETTER TO THE KING

Translated from the Norwegian, an earnest fable about a girl who counters sexism in ancient China: she proves her value by presenting to the king, who is unjustly imprisoning her father, an eloquent letter offering to take his place. While the message is worthy, the unattributed story (V† first heard it in his childhood, says the jacket) is burdened with irrelevant and/or unlikely details; the naive illustrations are attractive, but the Chinese text that appears as a superscript is nowhere explained. (Picture book. 4-8)