The Dragon S Village

This extraordinary autobiographical story, compelling, candid, and deeply personal, plunges us into that tumultuous moment in China out of which the modern People’s Republic finally emerged. It is the first time a novelist has ever described that distant world in words that open it up to Western readers in the clearest, most vivid terms. Shanghai, 1949: we look through the eyes of Guan Ling-ling, a headstrong, idealistic seventeen-year-old. As her family departs for Hong Kong, Ling-ling boldly chooses to stay, and joins a revolutionary theater group which soon leaves the city to carry out the new reforms in the Chinese countryside. After a scant few weeks’ preparation, this city-bred schoolgirl suddenly finds herself in one of China’s most remote and impoverished areas, a world so far from her own experience that she can barely understand the lives she has been sent to change. On her very first night in Longxiang (“the Dragon’s Village”), a dusty hamlet far in the northwest, Ling-ling’s life is threatened by agents of a defiant landlord. From that moment on , an unrelenting flood of events engulfs her: plot and counterplot, acts of violence, midnight raids, dramatic personal revelations, even glimmers of first love, all set against a canvas of revolutionary upheaval. Chen carries us on an incredible voyage against China at a critical moment in modern history. No novelist has focused so clearly or so closely on the faces of revolution, or on the physical and social landscapes in which it was played out, from the urbane circles of Shanghai to the parched fields and desolate families in tiny Longxiang. We are wholly involved in Ling-ling’s struggle to assume the unfamiliar garb of soldier and teacher, and can recognize in it an adolescent’s painful path to maturity. Yuan-tsung Chen was born in Shanghai and educated in a missionary school for girls there. She has just graduated from high school in 1949, and soon went to work at the Film Bureau in Peking. In 1951, she joined she joined land reform workers in Gansu Province, the setting of this, her first book. It was the first of several agrarian campaigns in which she took part over the next twenty years.

Within the political and societal context of the Chinese Revolution,an idealistic teenager abancond her family to work for the establishment of the People's Republic.

In 2009, on the outskirts of the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, Xian villagers secretly prepared for the Dragon Boat Festival. For them, the commemoration of the 221 BC poet Qu Yuan, who threw himself into a river to protest official corruption, held particular resonance. Guangzhou's drive to become a 'National Model City' ahead of the 2010 Asia Games accelerated a voracious demand for land, turning the ground beneath the villagers' feet into a commodity as valuable as diamonds, a treasure too rich for local officials to ignore. Dragons in Diamond Village is about the courage of individuals: Huang Minpeng, a semi-literate farmer turned self-taught rights defender; He Jieling, a suburban housewife who just wanted to open a hair salon; Xian villagers like Lu Zhaohui who refuse to give up the land their families have cultivated for generations. Theirs is a community bound by shared history and a belief in the necessity of change, a band of unlikely activists fighting for their place in China's new cities. 'A beautifully written account of how China's traditional rural past is meeting – and struggling with – its urbanising present . . . Via deftly told tales of China's little-known urban villages, Bandurski expertly guides readers through a mostly overlooked landscape and modern history.' Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet 'David Bandurski is a modern-day Marco Polo taking us into the heart of new China.' Kevin Sites, author of Swimming with Warlords and In the Hot Zone 'Vivid depictions of how villagers and migrants, living through the lawless and violent storms of Chinese urban land development, turn into political resistors. An important book of social reportage in the traditions of Liu Binyan and Studs Terkel.' Susan Shirk, author of China: Fragile Superpower and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration 'Bandurski combines his deep knowledge of China's history and culture with graceful writing to produce a thoroughly enjoyable book, and an important one for understanding the tension at the heart of China's breakneck pace of change.' Keith B. Richburg, author of Out Of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa and former China correspondent for the Washington Post

In 1949, idealistic seventeen-year-old Guan Ling-ling chooses to stay in Shanghai despite her family's departure for Hong Kong and joins a movement to carry out revolutionary land reform in a remote Chinese farm village

The day fire and ice erupt from the sky, everything changes forever for twelve-year-old Theo. He discovers that dragons are real when Lamia, a three-headed monster, kidnaps his sister. A witch and a talking magpie help him open the portal to Dragon Village, a land he knows only from myth, a place filled with terrifying creatures. A young woodland nymph befriends him when he arrives. He must learn to trust his instincts as he searches for a way to defeat Lamia before the dragon sacrifices his sister. In his journey, he uncovers secrets that reveal that only he can save the mystical land. In this book, you will discover some of the terrifying creatures from Bulgarian and Slavic mythology. Some you may know by other names: Samodivi are Veelas from Harry Potter fame, only here they're shown as supernatural creatures of the forest. Baba Yaga, Harpies, and other creatures find their way into these pages, as well as the dreaded Lamia.

Stealing a baby dragon was easy! Hiding it is a little more complicated, in this sequel to reviewer favorite Dragons in a Bag. Jaxon had just one job--to return three baby dragons to the realm of magic. But when he got there, only two dragons were left in the bag. His best friend's sister, Kavita, is a dragon thief! Kavita only wanted what was best for the baby dragon. But now every time she feeds it, the dragon grows and grows! How can she possibly keep it secret? Even worse, stealing it has upset the balance between the worlds. The gates to the other realm have shut tight! Jaxon needs all the help he can get to find Kavita, outsmart a trickster named Blue, and return the baby dragon to its true home.

Can scaredy-mouse Geronimo Stiltonord survive in the age of Vikings and dragons? Who is Geronimo Stiltonord? He is a mouseking -- the Geronimo Stilton of the ancient far north! He lives with his brawny and brave clan in the village of Mouseborg. From sailing frozen waters to facing fiery dragons, every day is an adventure for the micekings! Attack of the DragonsThe micekings are in a panic. The village's best cook is ill, and until she recovers, there's no delicious stew to eat! Geronimo Stiltonord departs immediately in search of a cure for her. But on the way, he ends up snout-to-snout with terrifying dragons! Can he make it back with his fur intact?

In an alternate ninth century, twelve-year-old Anya and a new friend face a Viking and a Tsar to protect the water dragon that saved her life, putting her family's home at risk.