◎After Ma Mingqian’s daughter, Little Ant, was born, I started to really read fairy tales. She started reading picture books when she was in kindergarten. When she was a little older, she added a lot of fairy tale books to her home around the time she entered elementary school.

◎Ma Mingqian

After my daughter, Little Ant, was born, I started to really read fairy tales.

She started reading picture books when she was in kindergarten. When she was a little older, she added a lot of fairy tale books to her home around the time she entered elementary school. For example, Shanghai Translation Publishing House world fairy tale masterpiece translation series "Charlotte Bookstore" (and then I bought some more). In addition to "Charlotte Bookstore", my daughter also has two sets of favorite books, one is Lewis ·Carol 's " Alice in Wonderland " and "Alice Through the Looking Glass", one set is Calvino 's three-volume "Italian Fairy Tales". She has read these two sets of books no less than four or five times, and she always giggles every time she reads them.

's daughter also has some fairy tale works from China on her bookshelf, such as the "Classic Nostalgic Series" from Dolphin Publishing House . However, to be honest, domestic writers have really neglected their duties towards children. Our original classic fairy tales, children's literature and children's poems are too scarce, and literary creations for adult readers are also relatively lacking in imagination (I mean the kind that can bring... A surprising piece of work). In my opinion, fairy tales and imaginative literature are necessary for everyone's growth. Life without imagination is monotonous and boring, and such monotony is simply unacceptable.

In mid-May of this year when it was still partially static, Fan Ye sent a book "Time Bear, Mirror Tiger and Invisible Kitten" from Beijing. The title of the book is indeed a bit long and a bit unique (yes, even the text on the waistband is funny). Is this a fairy tale book for children? Fan Ye is a poet, could the poems written in it be fairy tales? The illustrator is Gu Xiang. Her previous book "Good Kitten" is a masterpiece that combines pictures and text. Little Ant liked it very much before. So, is this a creation about animal pets in a similar style to "Good Kitten"? I'm really curious.

After getting the specially inscribed signed copy, the little ant was very happy. However, at that time, she had to prepare for the final exam next week, so it was up to me, who didn’t have to take the exam, to unpack it and try it out. Just like opening a blind box, I casually turned to the article "The Sleeping Bear" on page 95:

The Sleeping Bear has two hobbies: traveling and lying down.

Lying-down bears often travel lying down. Just watching the landscape in bed.

After reading one, change to another.

Woyouxiong piled the quilts into a mountain shape for a while, and then piled them into a water shape for a while.

One moment I climbed up the Thousand Miles of Quilt Mountain, and the next moment I crawled into the Thousands of Valleys and Quilt Valley.

After the Woyou bear became extinct, people called this form of tourism "Woyou" to commemorate the Woyou bear.

also calls this kind of scenery: nest landscape.

This is not a poem, it is a piece of prose, but it is very poetic and interesting. I knew Fan Ye before as a low-key poet and a well-known Spanish translator. Now, I discovered another side that I didn't know before: he has the kind of cold humor that deliberately suppresses laughter. Sixteen hundred years ago, Emperor Zong Bing of the Southern Song Dynasty "pictured all the mountains and rivers he saw during his travels on the wall, sitting and lying on them", and for the first time put forward the saying of "lying down to swim", and Fan Ye's "Lousing in the Landscape" is a novelty, a witticism, and a very high-level literary parody. As someone who also likes sleeping, I couldn't help but smile after reading it.

I have always been a picky reader. After doing this preliminary evaluation, I already expected that this would be a very interesting book that also exceeded the common imagination of and . Therefore, I don’t want to finish reading it quickly. I read quietly for half an hour every night before going to bed. I only read five or six articles each time, about 20 pages. I think this is the most appropriate reading rhythm.

During those ten days, every night, I would even look forward to going to bed, because the joy brought by reading would definitely come as scheduled. Just like every chapter of a poet or novelist I respect, I read it with a solemn attitude, holding a pen in my hand, and adding notes in the margin or under the page of each article I have read. Posted a sentence or two review.

Needless to say, the "Animal Manual" as the main part of this book is the most ingenious.

For example, in the article "Wind Chime Lion", when I saw the last two lines "Please imagine a wind chime lion running in the wind: a high-speed baroque concert", I admired in my heart: This is the language of poetry, and Fan Ye spoke so calmly and naturally, as if this purely imaginary animal should be like this, as if he told a secret that we have always been ignorant of. All the wonderful creatures in the "Animal Handbook" have an imaginary scientific name, and the "Wind Chime Lion" is no exception. Its Latin scientific name is Ursus chuang-tzu. It turns out that Fan Ye is secretly paying homage to our great and interesting ancestor philosopher, Zhuangzi who wrote "Xiaoyaoyou"! The intertextual techniques woven into it are really witty and interesting. Similar articles include "Snoring Nightingale", "Salt-Eyed Swallow" and "Mayfly Whale". This is an exquisite chapter that can only be written by someone who is often immersed in poetry and philosophy.

"Cage Horse", "Cave Penguin", "Dragon Dream Fox" and "Ladder Bear" are all small fables pointing to human beings themselves. When I read the article "Writing Bear" on page 55, I discovered Fan Ye's writing A little secret of this book:

WordBear is a kind of wombat .

writes in his bag every day.

writing bear loves writing. Only write in your own bag. Even if I write it, I can’t get it out. No one can see it, not even myself.

The writing bear gets more and more enthusiastic as he writes.

After the tiger ate it, well, the bear was a bit poetic.

This is a parable about poetry writing (and all about writing). Writing Bear is also the incarnation of each of us. After reading this, I temporarily closed the book and pondered for a long time. Fan Ye is clearly talking about himself in the fable

, and it contains the author's personal psychological autobiography. Taking a closer look, it seems that there are many people who have a similar love for words, and I may be included among them.

When I read the "Birthday Bear" article on page 71, I made a new discovery. Here a new transformation occurs: because she (another bear) appears who reports "my birthday". I remembered that when Brother Gongdu organized the Tianmu Mountain Pen Club five years ago, I met Fan Ye and his wife, who were newly married at that time. He did have a beautiful and quiet wife beside him. So, maybe all the bear-related chapters in this book are a special set of love poems, written for a specific target? Of course, this is just a little guess on my part as a reader, and I would like to imagine that when Fan Ye wrote, his psychological projection also included all people who retain their innocent nature, as well as the lovely creatures who accompany us in the world. Fan Ye is definitely a pantheist.

"The Invisible Kitten" is also a cute story that breaks away from the routine and lets imagination run wild. There are beautiful and fantastic pictures everywhere: reading in the golden sunshine in the afternoon, suddenly the slippers scatter and run away, the quilt bursts into laughter, A small tornado ripped through my bed. I knew it was an invisible kitten chasing its tail excitedly.

Needless to say, Gu Xiang’s illustrations are also excellent. She created illustrations for nearly every fable. The pictures she writes are quiet and beautiful, and they are so carefully adapted to this article, giving Fan Ye's imaginative chapter a pair of strange wings. The reason why I read this book slowly is because every time I read a text, I always have to take some time to carefully look at the illustrations next to it (another kind of immersion and appreciation). These paintings can be regarded as parallel creations of another outstanding artist, and their written expressions can be called "double illusion and dual beauty."

The two picture book authors are both ingenious and intelligent people. The book "Time Bear, Mirror Tiger and Invisible Kitten" they jointly contributed is so special, and its inherent quality is so rare that it cannot but be praised. . I usually don't like to write purely complimentary articles (because my criticism concept has always been to praise and criticize), but this time, it is really difficult for me to criticize. If I really want to criticize, I would like to say: Fan Ye, can you write more? I really hope there will be a sequel to this lovely and interesting book.Now that Fan Ye has his own child, as the child grows up, in the parallel world of the fable, there may be another equally cute "mini bear" appearing. Anyway, I'm particularly looking forward to the expansion of "The Animal Handbook." I have finished reading

. Next, the little ant will go on summer vacation soon, and it will be the children's turn to read it carefully. How would she feel? I should probably interview her in person then.

"Time Bear, Mirror Tiger and Invisible Kitten" places deep human love on imaginary animals, with warm emotions and a touch of sadness that comes with time. There is no special age limit for it. Children can watch it, and adults can also watch it. It only requires readers to really feel and understand it with their hearts. It was written by Fan Ye and drawn by Gu Xiang. It is as beautiful as Blake's "Song of Innocence and Experience".

hopes that more writers and poets will write for children and for current and future literary readers. Writing such a work not only has literary significance, but also represents a responsibility for the writer. I sincerely hope that there will be more and more similar excellent works, and they will eventually become a general trend.