Four Great Classic Novels are usually thought to be the     1     (good) novels in Chinese literature. What the four have in common is that they     2     (write) in a spoken language of their times unlike most ancient literature created in classical Chinese. Also, the four all have debatable authorship. They had a far-reaching impact     3     the development of Chinese societies in past eras. The four works were     4     (wide) read by scholars and administrative rulers and they contained philosophical ideas, history, and ideas about human society, family life, and politics     5    defined part of the world view of the literate (文人) and politically     6     (influence) people. Two of    7    , Water Margin and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, are semi-historical, long     8     (novel) , sort of like War and Peace by Tolstoy in terms of impact. The Dream of the Red Chamber was very highly regarded when it was published both in China     9     Japan and is reminiscent (怀旧的) of a psychologically complex work by Dostoyevsky. Journey to the West is a fairy tale     10       (fill) with romantic account reminiscent of Odyssey.

3 . With the winter holiday on the way and time on your hands, you might be looking for something to read. The following are four great books for you.

The Bright Side

Chad Otis is an author and illustrator. His new book, The Bright Side, is about finding hope in desperate situations. Its hero is a boy who lives with his family in an old school bus because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. This is something Otis experienced when he was a kid. He wants kids who are going through similar struggles to know, “You are not alone. Stay strong. Stay optimistic.”

Bunheads

In Bunheads, Misty Copeland tells the story of how she fell in love with dance. As a girl. Copeland was shy and afraid of talking in front of people. Dance helped her get past her fears. “Ballet gave me a language to communicate in a way that worked for me,” she told TFK. “Ballet allowed me to speak... through my body.”

Little Daymond Learns to Earn

Linle Daymond Learns to Earn teaches kids about money. It’s by Daymond John, who is one of the stars of Shark Tank. With a little creativity and the help of his friends, little Daymond starts a small business. “Every single business that you create does one thing — it finds solutions to problems in life,” he says.

Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots

What’s the difference between a fact and an opinion? Sometimes, it can be hard to tell them apart. Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots is a new picture book. It teaches kids about facts and opinions. The book uses robots to show the difference between the two. Michael Rex wrote and illustrated the book, in which he asks questions of the reader.

4 . One of the most commonly asked questions in the English language is “How are you?” and whether a person is feeling happy or sad, excited or lonely, fantastic or heartbroken they will just about always answer “Fine”. Why is this? Is it because humans are not good at expressing their emotions? Maybe it is just that emotions are often too personal or too complex to be shared in a casual conversation. However, for centuries, people have often expressed their emotions on paper, in the form of poetry.

The beauty of poetry is that the emotions the poet is trying to convey are often disguised in images so that the poet can maintain a feeling of privacy. For example, in Li Bai’s poem, “Seeing Meng Haoran Off at Yellow Crane Tower”, the poet describes the sail of his friend’s boat rules disappearing into the distance while he watches the river rolling by. This could seem merely like the description of a beautiful scene, but by reading into the poem, you can sense the deep sadness and loneliness that his friend’s leaving has caused him.

Poetry is also written to celebrate positive human emotions like joy, love and happiness. Throughout history, men and women have written poems to their loved ones to express their deep feelings. Poems about nature, which express the poet’s appreciation of the beauty in the world around him or her, are also common. Sadly, many poems have also been written to express anger at the destruction of nature and reactions to horrific events like war and death.

The interesting thing about poetry is that anyone reading a poem can have their own view or feelings about it and heated discussions can often arise over what the poet was originally trying to say or express. Poetry can be interpreted in many different ways. Often, a poem that one person loves another hates. Equally, a poem that one person understands and relates to, may turn another person off.

5 . Thanks to my K-drama obsession (痴迷), I’ve started learning Korean, I have a new favorite actor Lee Dong Wook, and I’ve become increasingly curious about Korean folktales. I was familiar with the Rabbit in the Moon and the Gumiho, but the Snail Bride and the Imugi were new to me. I also did not know about “The Tale of Shim Cheong”, where the beautiful daughter of a blind man throws herself into the sea and is taken to the underwater palace of the Dragon King. Axie Oh’s deliciously lovely novel The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is based on this tale, so I was very excited to learn more.

In this retelling, the perfect Shim Cheong is intended to be the Sea God’s hundredth bride. She will be his final bride, the locals say, bringing peace to both the angry god and the village that has been stuck by violent storms for a century. But as Oh’s story opens, a young man named Joon has lost his heart to Cheong and is about to risk everything to stop the sacrifice. To save the life of her brother, Joon’s 16-year-old sister Mina jumps into the sea at the last minute and gives herself to the Sea God instead.

Throughout the story are woven the timeless topics of faith, hope, responsibility, and loyalty to one’s family. And of course one of my favorite themes in all of literature: fate (命运) versus free will. What is it that determines our fate? If our path is truly one of our own makings, do we trust ourselves enough to make the “right” choices? What if we find our goals changing as we go along?

And if you, like me, have fallen hard in love with the legends woven into fantastic dramas like Hotel Del Luna and Tale of the Nine-Tailed, you’ll want to get your hands on The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea immediately and keep it in a special place on your bookshelf, for the express purpose of enjoying Axie Oh’s magical tale again and again!

6 . Nasugraq Rainey Hopson is an author and illustrator (插图画家). She has written short stories and made art inspired by her Iñupiaq culture. The Iñupiaq people are native to Alaska, the US. Hopson’s first and only novel to date, Eagle Drums, is set in Iñupiaq tales about a great festival. The great festival is still celebrated locally today.

In the book, the hero Pina struggles with the suffering from losing his brothers, who have traveled to a nearby mountain and never returned. Pina decides to go to the same mountain, trying to uncover the facts, where he happens to meet Savik, who gives Pina a choice: To follow him or to meet the same fortune as his brothers. Pina’s decision takes himself on a journey that exposes himself to the dances and songs that are part of Iñupiaq culture. Eagle Drums describes aspects of Iñupiaq life as a world that doesn’t exist much in the current world, such as walking in the tundra (苔原) and imagining mythological beings and talking animals everywhere. It will definitely inspire the teen magical thinking in its beauty.

Hopson wants to write more Iñupiaq stories. “We have a lot of oral history and stories in our culture,” she says. Hopson explains that Iñupiaq people use their voices, facial expressions and movements to express emotions as they tell a story. “But you can’t do that when you’re writing,” she says. “It’s very uncomfortable, in a way, to have to write down something that is a performance.” But she’s up for the challenge.

Eagle Drums is for anyone who is looking for a vivid adventure. Hopson says that when Iñupiaq kids read her work, they get excited about seeing something from their own area and their own culture. Other kids who read her work tell Hopson they’re excited about experiencing a story they’ve never experienced before in a new place. “You know, that’s the best part, hearing feedbacks,” she says.

7 . Elizabeth Sherrill is a long-time writer. For 70 years, her stories about faith, her experiences of traveling the world and dealing with depression (抑郁,沮丧) have been a beacon (灯塔) of light for many people. Check out some of her articles and let her words affect your heart.

A Letter on Depression

My struggle with depression hasn’t totally disappeared. It still surrounds me from time to time, blocking light and making it hard to smile. But the suffering no longer makes me frightened, because I keep telling myself to be positive.

An Angel Named Maria

“A baby was born here and no one knows what to do,” the doctor said into the telephone. He went on to explain that the mother had disappeared from the hospital after seeing the disabled baby. “She will not live long,” the doctor continued. “Bring us the baby,” answered Sister Marie Patrice at the other end of the line, who ran a day nursery.

Lessons from Abraham Lincoln

When I turned to leave, the picture over the door stopped me. It was a black-and-white photo: a tall, thin man with his hand on a table and with the saddest, most pain-filled face I’d ever seen.

The letters on the frame said “Abraham Lincoln”. He won every wrestling match and told funny stories that crowds would gather to enjoy. Over time, that picture made him more important to me than ever.

A Lesson while Moving

I stood looking out the kitchen window wondering how John and I could ever leave this house. We’d lived here for 50 years. Under the maple tree was the garden where we grew tomatoes that never ripened. There was the stump (树桩) of the cedar (雪松) we cut down to make room for our daughter’s wedding reception.

8 . Praised writer Jessica Khoury was only four years old when she began to write. Today, she has printed several books for young people, including The Mystwick School of Musicraft Series, The Corpus Trilogy, and The Forbidden Wish. Her latest novel is called The Ruby Code.

I recently spoke with Khoury about her new science fiction (小说) for middle-graders. The book, she told me from her home in South Carolina, is for anybody who has ever thought, “What would it be like for a video game world to come to life?”

Set in a future New York City, the book is, in Khoury’s words, “a high-action scary book.” Readers are introduced to 13-year-old Ash, a silent young gamer. His life circles around his love for virtual (虚拟的) reality games. They offer a chance to stay away from his bad stepfather and the cold-hearted people who laugh at him.

Ash’s life takes an unexpected turn when he is given a small metal box after helping a man in need. It contains an old-style video game called “The Glass Realm”. To his surprise, Ash meets a character named Ruby who was created by artificial intelligence (AI). Her abilities are so huge that she can even rewrite the game.

Ruby’s secret knowledge leads Ash on a painful but exciting adventure. At last, he is able to learn the truth behind a dishonest company.

In The Ruby Code, Khoury seeks the advantages and disadvantages of rapid technological progress. Like many people, she wonders how AI will change life.

“As a writer,” Khoury said, “I think all the time about how long it will be before the robots take my job. But I’m not a person who’s scared of technology. I like to consider not just the worst-case situation but also the best-case situation.”

9 . Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is a great book that has attracted young and old readers for over a century. Its long-lasting popularity shows Sewell’s skillful storytelling and the great message at the novel’s heart.

Through the eyes of Black Beauty, readers are sent to a world filled with trouble, pity, and hope. Sewell’s choice to tell the story from the horse’s viewpoint (角度) was a new method which made it easier for future writers to explore the thoughts of animals. The main ideas in the novel are just as important today as they were in the Victorian times.

Black Beauty is a lovely black horse that begins as a carriage (马车) horse, but when he is hurt, his rich owner decides that he is no longer good enough to be a carriage horse. From that moment, he is passed from owner to owner and goes through lots of hard work. Even though many unpleasant things happen to Black Beauty at the hands of unkind humans, he lives up to his name both outside and inside.

This story of his life from birth to old age is beautifully descriptive. Everything from his active days as a baby horse on a farm to a hard life pulling carriages on stone roads in London can be readily pictured in the readers’mind. Each part carries an important message about animal well-being, kindness, and respect, and is filled with plenty of page-turning suspense (悬念).

This Collector’s Edition of Black Beauty shows respect for this beloved book. Each part of the book has been carefully considered. From the drawings on the cover to the colored blocking, this is truly one-of-a-kind. The matching colored endpapers add an extra touch of luxury (奢侈), making it the perfect addition to any collector’s library and a great chance to experience the story that will reach your heart and stay with you forever.

10 . How to Read a Poem

You’ve selected the poem you want to read — congratulations! Now it’s time for the business of reading it.

Examine the title and the shape

    1     — how does it make you feel? How does the title fit the shape of the poem? If the title is sad, let the shape of the poem inform the small difference of the emotion — if it’s short and sparse (稀疏的), maybe it’s coming from a place of desolation or desperation.     2    .

Read the poem as you normally read anything

Reading poetry doesn’t require a clever approach; you can read as you’d read anything else. On the first pass through, absorb whatever it is that arises upon first impression.     3    , maybe your stomach churns (恶心) at a particular phrase, or you hold your breath at a certain line. Explore the feelings that come up as you read.

    4    

Next, try reading the poem out loud or search for readings of the poem online. This is where the music of a poem emerges, and you can feel the shape of each word and line as you move through it.

Add context to paint a full picture

Finally, return to the poem context.     5    ; look at the publication date and consider the world around the poem when it was first released. Consider where the poem lives: Was it released as part of the author’s poetry book, or was it published in a literary magazine? From these details and materials you will get a deeper understanding of the poem.