by Grace Lin (j Lin)
Mulan: Before the Sword is both a prequel to the original Mulan animated film and — surprisingly — a prequel for a major new character (Xian Lang) in the live action remake which came out in late September 2020. It’s told in the same framework as Grace Lin’s beloved, award-winning novels Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and When the Sea Turned to Silver: a girl must go on a magical journey to acquire something which will save people she loves. Every few chapters someone has a “Tale of the [something]” to tell that works as a little story by itself but also helps fill in the overall plot. It’s a *great* formula. Think “The Neverending Story” with little legends sprinkled in everywhere.
This is likely to be the first dive into Chinese legends and folk figures for many kids. It was pretty neat for me to see echoes of the classic Journeys to the West in the overall quest, but also offhand comments about well known characters like Sun Wukong messing with the same immortality fruit Mulan is tempted with.
The main “lesson” intended for kids has to do with Mulan feeling like she’s a failure for being bold and clumsy when her parents praise her dainty “proper girl” sister. So it’s a solid feminist tale in that sense. I was glad to see that it did go farther by letting the reader know most of the way through the book that a major character is gender fluid, and not just because they’re an immortal who can shapeshift (like all of them seemed to be doing), but that they actually do change pronouns and their friends know to check when they meet up again. Sometimes he is a high class healer. Sometimes she is a wrinkled old woman. So this book may be of special value to transgender kids.
**Some spoilers below in the critical part of this review**
It’s neither good nor bad, but this was a more violent book than I expected from the Age 8 / Grade 3 and up label that the review sources give it. Rabbit kills himself by jumping into a fire in order to become a meal to feed a guest. Daji fakes her own suicide by hanging, which is after she had people executed in a way inspired by her seeing an ant fall into a frying pan. These are in the back-in-time stories, but Mulan herself is part of a graphically gory blinding & killing of a large sea beast by means of repeated impaling [p. 288-292]. She also intentionally kills a (very deserving) human when she comes to understand her destiny [p. 347].
I do have some criticisms around personal appearance. There’s a lot of attention in this story to the notion that something or someone can look beautiful but be deadly. Or someone can look humble but be great. That’s all well and good, but what really alarmed me is that only one character is clearly described as being fat [p. 201]. He turned out to be corrupt. When people find out, he bolts “like a runaway pig” [p. 210]. There’s reference to “a poisonous wart that needed to be cut off” [p. 221] and the only person shown with warts happens to be an irredeemable villain [p. 201]. The sea beast that Mulan kills is described as having “mottled, slimy skin and and evil eyes protruding like boils” [p. 286]. Aside from attacking the adventuring party because of unspecified enmity with one of them, it’s this “evil” appearance that seems to justify Mulan killing it instead of, say, helping everyone escape the peril. In fact Mulan is told that she “didn’t slay that ugly brute for nothing” [p. 293] and she smiles.
So the impression I got is that while you don’t have to “beautiful” and “willowy,” you do still need to be clear-skinned and not fat. This story will shame some kids who don’t fit into the plain, powerful peasant mold that Mulan is being assured is an okay way to be.
There are what seemed like some loose threads in the story. We’re told that the prophecy of the Hua sisters was incomplete [p. 83], but it’s never completed in this book. Maybe that’s part of the prequel to the live action film where we’ll hear the rest of the prophecy? Also, I’m not sure why the red fox chapters have a shadowed background other than it being a cool effect.
Overall, this is a great children’s book that deserves attention even for people who aren’t into the Disney movies, and it’s a great bridge from the Disney movies to Grace Lin’s other very similar novels plus Chinese legends and culture, and names! We flat-out didn’t have books on this level this when I was young and I’m a bit envious of today’s kids, but also excited to promote this title to them.
[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, also by Grace Lin]
[ official Mulan: Before the Sword page on the official Grace Lin web site ]
Recommended
by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service
Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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