Books like Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior

One of four adaptations of the Chinese folk legend of Fa (or Hua) Mulan that I have read recently - the other three being Jeanne M. Lee's \ The Song of Mu Lan\ , Song Nan Zhang's \ The Ballad of Mulan\ , and Charlie Chin's \ China's Bravest Girl: The Legend of Hua Mu Lan\ (all bilingual) - Robert D. San Souci's Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior is the first exclusively English retelling I have picked up, and is more of a prose retelling inspired by the original poem, than a translation (whether in poetry or prose) of it. This approach allows San Souci to expand on the story a bit, adding passages in which Mulan sits by her campfire, missing her family and dreaming of being home again, or pretending, as a young girl, to be the famous swordswoman, the Maiden of Yueh.San Souci, as witnessed by his two-page afterword about the historical background of the tale, has clearly done a lot of research here, and his telling, in contrast to some of the others I have read, really emphasizes that this tale comes from the period in which the Mongolian Xianbei culture was dominant in China. Illustrators Jean and Mou-Sien Tseng, a husband and wife team, follow his lead with their colorful illustrations, done in acrylic, and in the style of a Chinese scroll painting. All in all, I enjoyed Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior, finding the story engaging, and the artwork appealing, and I would recommend it to young readers who have only encountered this story through the animated film from Disney. That said, I do prefer the Jeanne M. Lee and Song Nan Zhang versions, which, though more limited in narrative, are also more faithful to the form of the original.