A young girl uses her skills as a hunter after her father dies. She does this to escape her evil stepmother.
Courage/ China

2-5 ( )

The Girl Who Wanted to Hunt is a different take on the Cinderella story. Anga's mother is taken by the Black Death, and her father killed by a tiger. Anga is left with her evil step-mother Unin, who wants to kill her. Anga uses her wonderful hunting skills as well as some help from her toys that come to life to escape Unin and help other children in need. I would recommend this book to readers at the 2nd-5th grade level. ( )

When Anga's mother dies of the Black Death, and her father Adiga remarries, the young girl finds her new stepmother a demanding and unsympathetic parent. Despite Unin's ridicule, Anga's father encourages her, when she expresses a preference for hunting, over the more "womanly" skills, teaching her how to communicate with the animals, and making her a bow and arrow set. But when Adiga is killed by a tiger, and Unin's demands become increasingly difficult to fulfill, Anga soon finds that she must flee...

This tale of a brave young girl who avenges her father's death, by slaying the tiger who killed him, and who - through the persecution of her stepmother - eventually finds refuge on the moon, has also been collected in Dmitri Nagishkin's Folktales of the Amur: Stories from the Russian Far East. Emery Bernhard's retelling is engaging, and, when paired with Durga Bernhard's gouache and acrylic illustrations, will surely please young folklore enthusiasts. ( )

The story is retold by Emery Bernhard and illustrated by Durga Bernhard. The illustrations really relate to the story and the culture. At the end of the story there is an artist’s note about how the art was done and why. “The pictures in this book were painted in gouache on Whatman cold press 140 lb. watercolor paper, with final touches added in color pencil. Borders and graphic embellishments were inspired by the highly sophisticated decorative art and ritual artifacts of the Udeghe, Nanai, and other indigenous people of the Amur River region” (Bernhard). It is clear the extreme effort was put into making this book relate to the culture that it is about in the text. I like how the art in this book really relates to the culture and the book would be great to teach children about a very sophisticated people.

A story of a young girl whose father dies while hunting. The girl follows her dream to learn to hunt Despite her mean stepmom's antagonism.