Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui

Gr 1–3—In this picture book, Smith reimagines the life of those who lived at Sanxingdui, an archaeological site in present-day Sichuan, China. Over a period of three days, a young girl named Min describes the preparations leading up to the Warrior Festival, a coming-of-age ceremony in which boys become men. She is caught in a flood and is saved by her brother's new pet elephant. Min then must help her father (the village chief) and the newly minted warriors decide what to do when invaders threaten. In addition, Smith also provides a sense of village life—a lot to cover in this gentle re-creation of the final days of Sanxingdui. The mystery alluded to in the title refers to the archaeological discovery of large bronze pieces in 1986 and our ignorance of what Sanxingdui culture was really like and what led to its destruction. Paragraphs of text are accompanied by full-page watercolor illustrations. Smith tends to overexplain small details (a throwaway fishing scene explains that "Minnows are small fish that attract big fish"), and the use of present tense means that children will need the endnotes or jacket copy to know this story takes place more than 3,000 years ago. The likelihood that a leader of a major settlement would look to his young daughter to decide how to handle an invasion threat is historically dubious but makes for a satisfying end for younger listeners.