Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong's Work for Sustainable Farming

Schmalzer, S. (2018). Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong's Work for Sustainable Farming (1st ed.). Tilbury House.
40 Pages, Grades 3-7, Picture book/ Biography, ISBN 978-0884484042. 

How can science change our life and the environment that we live in? This book talks about how a village in China solved their bug problems to prevent their crops from being bitten with the help of the scientist Pu Zhelong as well as how a boy from this village followed Pu Zhelong's example and became a scientist. The villagers in the countryside lived their lives relying on farming. However, they encountered some bug problems that the insects ate their rice and lychees, which made the fruits were very scrawny. They tried to use lights and chemicals to kill all the bugs, but the bugs appeared again after a while. Pu Zhelong came to the village used scientific methods that he had learned aboard to help them solve the problem. A boy witnessed what Pu Zhelong did and decided to receive higher education and the knowledge of science to help more people. 

I enjoy reading this book a lot for several reasons. First, the messages that this book is trying to express to the readers are positive and meaningful. It introduces how Chinese farmers' life looked like back in the last century as well as some common perspectives on Chinese culture. It involves one of the great work that scientist Pu Zhelong has done in his life to help and serve others. It also reveals that science can solve environmental problems and even change people's life. This book will be good for elementary kids to read when they are learning social studies about Chinese culture, people with outstanding contributions, farming, and the environment. The author uses the view of a boy from the village to write the whole story. It is easier to draw kids into the story and understand what the story talks about. Additionally, the texts of each page are always gathered together and on one side of the page, which helps readers read the texts more conveniently. For the illustration of this book, the illustrator uses flashbacks, multiple layers, and line-and-color wash illustrations to reveal the realistic images to the readers. You can notice that there are a lot of Chinese elements in the illustrations as you read this book. For example, there are different images of window paper-cutting on most of the pages, and window paper-cutting is one of the Chinese traditional crafts. Furthermore, there is no concrete stereotype of Chinese culture or other controversial issues in this book. If you are looking for a great book for social studies, you should definitely check this book out!

Reviewed by Liu, Yulin.