Tanglewood Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan

I got this hoping it could work as a class read aloud focused on Asia Continent study. Although I love the subject matter, I found the level of writing to be severely lacking - sentences and descriptions and dialogue are all quite simplified. I teach Upper Elementary and like to offer GOOD examples of literature to my students; I don't think I should sacrifice skillful storytelling for the sake of content/relevant subject matter. I'll be keeping this for my book clubs (students' independent reading groups) and will be earmarking it for 3rd or maybe 4th graders only.

This is the bedtime reading for my 9 year old. We are both really enjoying the inside view of a life style so foreign to us. The 13 year old Chengli hears the desert wind calling him. He was born out in the Gobi desert but was sent to live in the city when his parents died. Now he feels the need to return to his roots to discover his father. He joins a caravan which will travel across the desert and mountains visiting cities and villages along the way. He encounters a difficult princess and feels responsible when she is kidnapped. Right now we are at the part where he tried to follow the kidnappers but fell off his horse and was injured. He was rescued by a nomadic family and when he healed they helped him on his way.. Can't wait to find out what happens. On one hand he is a boy much like any boy but living in a time and place very different. We can feel the grit of sand in our eyes after the sandstorm, and we feel the thirst from the deadly heat of the desert. This is a great book if you want your kid to understand different kinds of people and appreciate different life styles.

I got this book for school reading with my daughter. We both are loving reading it together and find it very interesting and hard to put down. It goes well with history and learning about customs in ancient China and about the Silk Road. The hard cover book looks very nice and came in new condition. It shipped quickly.

I'm a read-aloud parent with a family of boys. We are doing a Silk Road unit study and I got this book as an adventure story. Chengli is not an admirable boy character, which makes for a bad adventure. Chengli is a wincing, cringing, shrinking coward who uses defeatist language. He acts recklessly, with no forethought. The book throughout is fraught with futility, fatalism, outbursts of temper, and impulsiveness. A little change toward the end: Chengli tries to emulate his honorable father. The book does point out the need for boys to have courage, boldness, and a quick mind. There is an anti-stealing message. There are so many better princess-and -peasant stories. Star Wars, for example. David Eddings' Belgariad series is simply excellent. This book does have memorable settings: a 2,000 mile journey. For adventure stories along the Silk Road (sort of), you will do better with Mowgli (The Jungle Books) than Chengli.

I read this allowed with my 11-year-old homeschooled son. We both loved it. Beautifully written. Great messages both in humanness and history. Highly recommended.