HO FILLS THE RICE BARREL

Near the camphor plateau of Formosa young Ho Han lived with his father and mother and little sister Mai Lu. Although Ho and his father undertook the terrifying trip to Tapei to sell camphor, it was not thus that their rice barrel was re-filled. Instead the little camphorwood box which Ho had carved as a gift for Mai Lu saved the family destiny. Although there are episodes of intrinsic excitement, somehow the telling vitiates their force. And coincidence is a pivotal point in the structure of the story. However it is an easy reading story about Formosa, with illustrations underscoring the economic privation and the topography of the Far East.