Children's Books: Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu, by Emily Arnold McCully

When choosing books for young children it is important for parents, guardians and teachers to screen each book for quality and appropriateness. The book should be judged on a number of points. As a parent, for each book you read, you should be assessing whether or not the book is at the appropriate level for your child. Does the book meet your standards in terms of skill in encouraging language development, cognitive development, personality development, and social development.

Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu by Emily Arnold McCully is a multicultural story, specifically in the genre of Asian American literature. The story is geared towards children ages six through ten and at the fifth grade reading level. Wu Mei became a Buddist nun after the fall of the dynasty in which she had been raised from birth. She had studied Kung fu and learned how to use her qi. One day, a young girl was attacked by a band of thieves. Wu Mei saved the Mingyi, the girl, and Mingyi never forgot how Wu Mei had helped her. Later, a bully named Soong Ling came and told Mingyi that she must marry him or he would destroy her family's business. Mingyi went back to Wu Mei for help, studied Kung Fu, and learned how to use her inner strength and qi to overcome her obstacles. In the end, she defeated Soong Ling on her own.

This book contributes to the language development of the reader by encouraging the use of larger words and more complex sentence structures. The length of the book is not too long, allowing for cognitive development as the child's attention span grows. The story should also encourage the social development of the reader. It demonstrates the positive results of patience and persistence.

This book does meet the criteria for multicultural literature. The characters are portrayed as individuals instead of just as a group. Wu Mei is the a female Buddhist and the families in the story come from different social levels. The book also transcends stereotypes by showing females in warrior roles. The setting is authentic, there is no intervention by white characters, and there is no offensive or degrading language used.