Tag Phung Nguyen Quang

Bad United Fast As Lightning / Guardians of the New Moon: The Year of the Ox

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These are both additions to popular series from Little Tiger – thanks to the publisher for sending then for review.

Bad United Fast As Lightning
Louise Forshaw

Having achieved two wins, Bad United are starting to attract a fair bit of attention, so much so that Hoof the unicorn declares ‘We’re famous’.
When manager, Serena Winter announces a visit to the spa, it’s no surprise that one team member is far from enthusiastic: Bolt (cheetah) considers yogic breathing a complete waste of time; he’s the best striker so why bother, he thinks. But whether the experience has had the desired effect of bringing the whole team back together ready for anything as Hoof hopes, we’ve yet to find out when they begin training for the next match, which is against Storm. Pretty soon though, it appears that it’s not the case with Bolt.

On match day Serena reminds them all to focus on their happy places but with all the other players waiting on the pitch, team Storm hasn’t shown up. What happens thereafter is I suspect, the strangest ever match that commentators, Waffle and Cyclops have ever witnessed, so much so that Serena immediately asks for a rematch. Will Bad United emerge victorious, this time? And has Bolt finally learned about team play? If so, fans will be cheering extra loud.

Guardians of the New Moon: The Year of the Ox
Eric Huang, illustrated by Phùng Nguyén Quang

Shocked that his son Xiao Nioh has been wasting his time working on a dance he was going to perform to usher in the Year of the Ox, Lord Chiyou is finding it very difficult to understand his son’s creative performance involving a sword and a long coloured ribbon. Frivolities is what he calls it and in an effort to make his son brave, at the suggestion of the Jade Emperor sends Xiao Nioh off on a quest accompanied by the Guardians of the New Moon, Ming and Miaow. They must deliver a message about farming techniques and one more matter – the crops and the whole valley must be protected from the nian, a fierce magical one-horned beast with a massive appetite. With the help of the Guardians, can Xiao Nioh prove himself without having to abandon his dancing dreams, or will the Year of the Ox be a huge let down?

With plenty of action and humour too, this third book in the series is as exciting as the previous Guardians stories.

Guardians of the New Moon: Ming and Miaow’s Great Race / Guardians of the Moon: The Year of the Rat

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Guardians of the New Moon: Ming and Miaow’s Great Race
Guardians of the Moon: The Year of the Rat
Eric Huang, illustrated by Phûng Nguyên Quang
Little Tiger

In the first two books in the new Guardians of the New Moon series, readers are transported to a world inhabited by characters from traditional Chinese legends or based on them.
Ming and Miaow’s Great Race begins with the Jade Emperor sitting finishing breakfast and feeling bored by the predictability of his life since creating the Earth. What he longs for is excitement and as he sits staring he notices a black and white cat chasing around near a temple. This gives him an idea: he will organise a great race between all the animals of Earth and the first twelve will each be honoured by having a lunar year named after them.
Miaow, the temple cat is at first not excited by the news of the race but cannot resist participating and sets off on a journey to where the three-part event will start. The Great Race has strict rules that must be adhered to, with rule-breakers being disqualified.
Soon Miaow encounters Ming, a temperamental nine-tailed, elemental fox who is able to shape shift into a human girl and gradually they forge a strong friendship as they struggle to stay in the three day race which takes them down into a valley, across treacherous mountainous terrain and across a mighty river with various competitors falling out at each stage, not so however the wily rat Su. Will these three number among the first twelve across the finishing line? The excitement is high, the perils plentiful and teamwork powerful.

The black and white illustrations help to bring the Chinese folklore characters to life, the story ends with Ming and Miaow becoming The Guardians of the New Moon, thus setting up the next adventure which sees the two preparing for their first assignment in their new roles.

With the race duly completed Su has been honoured by having the first lunar new year named The Year of the Rat after her. The new year is just a week away and that’s when Ming and Miaow (neither having finished the race) are given a new mission: to escort Su to her temple home and liaise with its monks to prepare for the upcoming festivities. Once they arrive, squabbles soon break out and chaos follows.
What happens enrages the sea goddess, Mazu who after thinking briefly acts against the cat and rat by means of a spell.
The celebrations now look increasingly unlikely to go ahead, so can Ming help Miaow and Su see sense and put things right ahead of the new year? It’s that or the Jade Emperor’s plan to honour the twelve animals selected by the Great Race is doomed to fail before it begins.

With action aplenty and lots of dramatic illustrations these stories are just right for readers gaining confidence in lower KS2 as well as for reading aloud around the time of the Chinese New Year (it starts January 29th this year), which is celebrated in many primary schools. I look forward to further titles in the series.