Li Lun, Lad of Courage

Title: Li Lun, Lad of Courage
Author: Carolyn Treffinger
Major Themes: China, Fishing, Rice, Courage
Synopsis: When he couldn’t bring himself to go to sea with his father, Li Lun was ordered to raise rice on top of the mountain.

I bought Li Lun, Lad of Courage about 12 years ago, to read for school. My husband, who rarely reads anything except the Bible, noticed this book and picked it up—and he read the whole thing! He enjoyed the story, and I have been impressed with it each time I have read it. We read it recently, for at least the third time, when we needed a short book to get through on a weekend that several of the children were away and I didn’t want to read the normal books.

Li Lun was on the shore with everyone else from his village on an island off the shore of China, but he was not excited, as the other boys his age were. It was time for all of them to go on the fishing trip with their fathers, the one that would make them a man—but Li Lun was afraid of the sea and couldn’t make himself go. His father was quite angry, and told the boy that he had to go to the top of the mountain with seven grains of rice and not come back until he had seven times that many grains.

Li Lun had no idea how to raise rice. No one on their island ever did! He learned all he could, then climbed the mountain and set about his task. One catastrophe after another threatened his crop. Could Li Lun find enough courage to stay there until his job was done? Or would the crop be destroyed before it was ripe? Was there more than one kind of courage? Or was he just a coward?

Li Lun, Lad of Courage is an amazing story of a boy who had to do a difficult task. It shows a boy maturing to a man by facing danger. It is the story of a mother’s love for her son. This is a story all children should read.

No warnings!