The Moose of Ewenki

"The Moose of Ewenki This picture book was written in Chinese but the culture of reindeer herding which it depicts is not one that most readers normally associate with China. The award-winning, best-selling author is an ethnic Mongolian who clearly has an affinity with other essentially nomadic cultures. He has previously written a novel for children called Black Flame , also translated into English, about a Tibetan mastiff which is stolen from its owner and has a series of adventures. In The Moose of Ewenki , the main human character is an old Evenki man called Gree Shrek. (The Evenki are a Tungusic people who live on both sides of the Argun river, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China and in the Russian Far East.) Gree Shrek is a hunter who mistakenly kills a female moose who has a calf. When the orphaned calf follows him home, Gree Shrek names him Xiao Han – Little Moose – and takes care of him. Xiao Han gets up to all sorts of mischievous antics and, even when he has outgrown all the reindeer, follows Gree Shrek everywhere. But the ageing Gree Shrek realises that he doesn’t have long to live and that Xiao Han really belongs in the forest. The Moose of Ewenki is longer than a normal picture book (over 60 pages), but there isn’t too much text – the focus is very much on the carbon pencil and watercolour illustrations of nature and animals. The illustrations add humour to the story; the pictures of the growing moose calf knocking down the tent or dripping water all over Gree Shrek are sure to delight young readers."