Bowls of Happiness: Treasures from China and the Forbidden City

K-Gr 2—The Palace Museum of Beijing's Forbidden City contains a vast collection of porcelain bowls, some of which are highlighted here. To introduce some of the common motifs used in bowl decoration, Tse starts with a confusing story about a family. A mother makes a bowl for her child, who is nicknamed Piggy. She paints a pig on the bowl, along with several traditional Chinese motifs. As she works, the various elements of the painting talk to one another. Sometimes, Piggy is a girl, while other times, she's depicted as a pig. It's also difficult to understand what's going on when the motifs begin speaking to one another and to Piggy. Many spreads feature a page with traditional artwork facing a page with text and Mak's delicate watercolor illustrations. The second half of the book contains photographs of some of the bowls in the collection of the Forbidden City's Palace Museum and explains the meaning in the motifs and some of the techniques used to create the porcelain. The audience for this work is unclear: though the tone overall is fairly young, the topics covered in the latter half will be of interest to an older audience.