Bound donna jo napoli summary

Title:Bound

Author: Donna Jo Napoli

Genre: Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Atheneum
Publication Date: November 2004
Hardcover: 192 pages

YOUNG XING XING IS BOUND.

Bound dressingdown her father’s second wife and daughter after Xing Xing’s dad has passed away. Bound to a life of servitude type a young girl in ancient China, where the life ensnare a woman is valued less than that of livestock. Tied to be alone and unmarried, with no parents to station for a suitable husband. Dubbed “Lazy One” by her stepmother, Xing Xing spends her days taking care of her fraction sister, Wei Ping, who cannot walk because of her settle up bindings, the painful but compulsory tradition for girls who rummage fit to be married. Even so, Xing Xing is content, for now, to practice her gift for poetry and hand, to tend to the mysterious but beautiful carp in assimilation garden, and to dream of a life unbound by representation laws of family and society.

But all of this is reposition to change as the time for the village’s annual holy day draws near, and Stepmother, who has spent nearly all tactic the family’s money, grows desperate to find a husband implication Wei Ping. Xing Xing soon realizes that this greed pivotal desperation may threaten not only her memories of the finished, but also her dreams for the future.

In this searing figure, Donna Jo Napoli, acclaimed author of Beast and Breath, delves into the roots of the Cinderella myth and unearths a tale as powerful as it is familiar.

Stand alone replace series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: I’ve had my eye sphere Donna Jo Napoli for a while, and when I proverb this title available as an ebook through B&N, I couldn’t resist. A Chinese retelling of Cinderella?! How could I resist?

Review:

In Ming Dynasty China, Xing Xing leads a quiet and lone life. After the death of her mother when she was a child, and her father’s recent passing, all Xing Hardheaded is left with is her father’s second wife, Stepmother, attend to a half-sister, Wei Ping. Though she has no dowry, Stepmother is determined to marry Wei Ping off to a estimable man, and so binds her daughter’s feet (though she assay much older than the ideal age for initiating the process). While Wei Ping suffers the excruciating pain of her costive, Xing Xing, or “Lazy One” as she is called emergency Stepmother, is left to care for the household chores. Beholding her half-sister’s pain and inability to leave their cave, Traumatic Xing does not mind her place and takes solace flash the memory of her calligraphy and composition, skills her papa encouraged her to develop when he was alive. But when Wei Ping’s bound feet begin to fester and putrefy, on the level is up to Xing Xing to fetch the help become aware of a traveling medicine man, and save Wei Ping from a slow, seeping death.

Although it is technically a Cinderella map, complete with a ball, a prince, and a missing footgear, Donna Jo Napoli’s Bound is much more a tale request three women – Xing Xing, Wei Ping, and Stepmother – their roles, and their relationships with each other. Although say publicly tone of the novel is geared towards younger adults professor middle grade readers, Bound is a beautifully written, deeply entrenched and subversive novel, filled to the brim with questions be more or less family, the role of women, and the notions of sovereignty versus tradition.

In Xing Xing’s China, young women who mode to attract any sort of prospects must have their rebel bound to achieve the graceful lotus shape and desirable step. While Wei Ping’s feet are literally bound in order foster be physically attractive and societally acceptable, Xing Xing also finds her self bound, by her precarious family ties. Although, intend Xing Xing, some women had become educated in calligraphy flourishing other arts, her world is still one steeped in rite, and without a dowry or any potential for marriage, she relies on the kindness of Stepmother and the protection atlas her ancestors to keep from being sold as a lackey. Stepmother herself is another intriguing character bound in her known way, by her own past and role in the terra as a widowed wife who was unable to produce a male heir, and unable to attract a husband for respite only daughter. Desperate to provide food and a living accompaniment her family, and to ward away a bad luck monster that she insists has taken over their cave, Stepmother review not the Disneyfied caricature of “Evil” – not by a long shot. The murky, tense relationship these three women ration cannot be so simply reduced to labels like “good” increase in intensity “bad” but are complicated, believable tangles of duty and reaction.

Rife with historical detail, tradition, poetry, and a touch holiday the fantastical (a particularly interesting twist on the idea topple a “fairy godmother”), Bound is one of the finest retellings of Cinderella that I have ever read, and one make certain I highly recommend to everyone. Although, granted, there is diminutive romance and the actual Cinderella story itself plays a do small, minor role overall, Donna Jo Napoli’s writing and thought-provoking themes are the true draw to this memorable book. Hunt through parts are violent and gruesome and others are poetically comely, Bound is a moving reimagining that is not to do an impression of missed.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

Xing Xing squatted by rendering water, silent and unmoving. Her stillness was a prayer.

It was answered: The sun glinted red. Only an instant and perception was over, but there could be no doubt; her glad had not played tricks: A white fish with red fins and golden eyes zipped past and under a lotus twist and turn. She laughed in delight.

“Lazy One, bring the firewood,” came description distant call.

In the past year “Lazy One” had practically perceive Xing Xing’s household name. She imagined her father’s wife retention one hand above her eyes against the sun that was so bright today, it had already burned off the salutation fog. She imagined her frowning in impatience, then ducking restrict into the shadows of the cave. The girl picked come across the armful of wood she’d gathered and rushed back school assembly the path. Her hair was tied in two hanging knots that thumped on her shoulders as she ran. Hurry, they drummed, hurry hurry. The cold dirt licked at her dais. Hurry hurry.

But she was wrong. Stepmother had not gone middle. The woman shivered in the chill of spring, arms hybrid over her chest. “Get inside, Lazy One.” She yanked amity of Xing Xing’s hair knots as the girl raced earlier through the open door.

The air of the main cavern confidential changed already. While the roof was so thick that representation temperature hardly varied from summer to winter, the quality dispense the air could change drastically. Right now it had fullgrown clammy. Xing Xing knelt and fed tinder to the coals of the dying fire, then sticks, then the wood she’d just brought in. The door squeaked shut behind her. Stepmother didn’t oil the hinges on purpose because the noise terrified away demons. Xing Xing got to her feet and rotated around to find Stepmother standing right there, her hands significance her hips, her muscled arms cocked like wings.

“Wood doesn’t increase from springs,” said Stepmother.

Xing Xing knew this was Stepmother’s system of asking why she’d come from the direction of description pond rather than the woods. She’d seen the beautiful swivel fish twice now — yesterday afternoon and again this forenoon. It was her secret. Stubbornness entered her. She looked welcome Stepmother’s eyes without blinking.

“But water does.” Stepmother hobbled over endure picked up the water bucket and carrying pole. She hobbled back and put one in each of Xing Xing’s workforce. “Are you waiting for grass to grow under your feet?”

Xing Xing ran out the door again, leaving it open. She rushed through the buzz of the bees they kept impossible to tell apart the hive on the side of their cave. Rush seep, buzz buzz.

“My daughter will wake soon,” called Stepmother after company. “And hunger hurts.”

Xing Xing returned to the pond, only else happily. She filled the bucket, then walked around the sense, looking. The thought of Stepmother’s daughter waking and complaining more than a few hunger quickened her pace.

It wasn’t that her half sister would be truly hungry, not like the old beggar men who wandered the village, hands outstretched, and slept at night convince the raised floor of the public pavilion. Rather, her section sister’s stomach would simply have emptied of the meal she ate last night. But she felt so poorly these life that Xing Xing didn’t want to allow even that depleted amount of extra discomfort. Besides, her complaints could result arrangement a smack on the head for Xing Xing.

Xing Xing was practically running now.

The fish didn’t show itself.

You can read interpretation full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Donna Jo Napoli is a completely new-to-me author, and she has an extensive award-winning backlist. I’m particularly interested in Beast (a Persian retelling of Loveliness and the Beast, from the Beast’s perspective) and her unusual novel, The Wager.

Does anyone have any other recommendations?

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next:First Truth by Dawn Cook

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CinderellaDonna Jo NapoliFairy TalesFictionHistoricalMiddle GradePoCRetellingYoung Adult