#396 of 1001 · August 31, 2021

One of the most fundamental psychological needs is to know oneself, to find one’s place in the world. Though it may be tempting to seek answers from others, true understanding must come from within. And so it goes in siblings Grace and Chong Chang’s Jin Jin the Dragon. After hatching out of a thousand-year-old egg, a golden creature begins to wonder just what sort of a being it is. A few nearby animals name the newborn creature Jin Jin, but a name is not enough to reveal its true identity, and so it sets off on a quest for self-discovery. Several beasts it encounters note hatchling’s similarity to themselves: Jin Jin has scales like the fish, talons like the eagle, a sinewy body like the snake, green eyes like the hare, pointed ears like the water buffalo, antlers like the deer, a tail like the lion, and a face like the camel. When a farmer seeks aid for his village, which is experiencing a drought, Jin Jin instinctively rises into the air and breathes an enormous plume of water over the village’s rice paddy. Thereafter, he has no doubt: he is most certainly a water dragon. Grace Chang weaves elements of Chinese culture, mythology, and writing into her endearing original tale; Chong Chang has used soft washes of Chinese watercolor to create his illustrations. The book contains an author’s note detailing the direct inspiration for the story, as well as notes on dragons in Chinese culture and on the history of the Chinese alphabet. #dragon #egg #animal #animals #water #knowledge #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks