New Practical Reader and Straw House.

Read some Straw House and then spent more time on New Practical Reader

My favorite passage from today's reading of Straw House is 天虽下雨，但天色并不暗。因此，在银色的雨幕里，秃鹤的头，就分外亮。"It was raining but not dark. In the silver curtain of rain, Bald Crane’s head glistened even more." Also read New Practical Reader.

Only read New Practical Reader today.

Same as yesterday.

Read New Practical Reader and more Straw House. In Straw House, Bald Crane gets sensitive about his baldness and will no longer let anyone touch it. The butcher wants to touch it in exchange for 2 catties of meat, but Bald Crane grabs it and throws it into the dusty street.

Thanks, Birgit, for the 语文 link. Are these the kind of materials Chinese students use? 很有意思。

Rereading beginning of the Straw House and New Practical Chinese Reader, Vol. 4. I recognize almost all of the characters from both of these texts, but Straw House is much more difficult to read. The NPCR text seems to stick to the base meanings of the characters, while Straw House is much more figurative and evocative of feelings - more poetic. Definitely need a dictionary.

Doing a rereading

Sang Sang decides to flirt with a girl and thinks of ways to show off.

It's hot in YaoMaDi and everyone goes to the riverside. Kids all go into the river whether they know how to swim or not. Sang Sang enjoys staying in the water and coming out to eat muskmelon. The hot sun makes him come up with some crazy ideas.

Sang Sang's mother doesn't hit him, but takes away his mosquito net which leaves him sleepless and covered with mosquito bites.

Sang Sang goes fishing using his parent's mosquito net. His little sister rats him out.

Sang Sang is getting into trouble again and decides to use his parents mosquito net over their big bed as a fishing net.

Zany description of Sang Sang taking his mothers cupboard and making a pigeon coop out of it. Of course he gets a beating, but he is unrepentent.

Now getting into a description of Bald Crane's best friend Sang Sang and their primary school grounds. My favorite description is of the plantings of shrubbery around the school campus: 这些安排，没有一丛到意的痕迹，仿佛是这个校园里原本就有的，原本就是这个样子。There were no traces of human effort at all, as if those decorations had always been there as part of the campus.

Hemingwayesque description of a school campus of straw houses.

Bald Crane's father tries to cure his baldness with a ginger concoction rubbed on his head.

Continued with The Straw House and started WordSwing Girl Saves Universe.

The Straw House - a kid is called Bald Crane (秃鹤) because he is completely bald. There are many bald people in the village where he lives. His best friend is called Sang Sang (桑桑).

Reading The Straw House （草房子 ）by Cao Wenxuan （曹文轩）。This is considered to be Chinese children literature, I guess, aimed at the junior high school crowd. The hero, Bald Crane (秃鹤), is this age. I can recognize about 75 of the characters.