Flower Finger

Name: Flower Finger
ISBN: 9787301171615

Cao WenxuanPeking University Press · ChinaAug 2025

4.2

Word count: 85K words
Chapters: 40
ISBN: 9787301171615

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Summary

Cao Wenxuan's works are broad in theme and full of great goodness and beauty, beneficial to children's character growth. His prose is elegant and deeply musical. This series is structured by the author himself around themes such as life, growth, emotion, and wisdom, and he personally selected the finest pieces. It highlights themes of life, emotion, growth, delight, philosophical thought, virtue, beauty, and spirit. Demonstration readings are provided by Cao Wenxuan himself, actors from the Sichuan People's Art Theatre's musical "The Straw House", and teachers and students from the Nanshan Affiliated School of the Central Institute of Education, with a demonstration reading CD included. Reading aloud lets children feel the beauty of Chinese and fosters closeness to their mother tongue; reading aloud bridges the world of sound and the world of words, helping children fall in love with reading; reading aloud subtly turns elegant written language into spoken language, improving oral quality; reading aloud corrects the bias in "Chinese" education that values "writing" over "speaking."

Editor's review

This book rearranges Cao Wenxuan's works by themes such as life, growth, emotion and wisdom, with selections made by the author himself, giving it a clearer overall structure than an ordinary anthology. Its most distinctive feature is that it combines reading with listening: the language is elegant and musical, and model readings are included, so readers can feel the rhythm and warmth of Chinese in sound. For children building reading habits, reading aloud is a bridge from spoken to written Chinese and can correct the tendency in language education to emphasize text over speech. It suits family reading, classroom read-aloud activities, or use as a bedtime parent-child anthology. Note that it leans toward literary cultivation and language sense rather than character-recognition drills or test-oriented reading practice.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Parents who want to use reading aloud to build their child's language sense and interest in reading
Chinese-language teachers leading read-aloud activities in class
Readers who admire Cao Wenxuan's elegant style and want a systematic selection of his best work
Primary school students who want to improve their Putonghua reading aloud with audio models

Not a good fit for

Students who want a direct boost in test-oriented reading scores
Younger children who prefer fast-paced, highly plot-driven books
Learners who need systematic character recognition or pinyin training

Reading tips

Listen to the model reading once, then read aloud along with it, paying attention to pauses and tone.
Each day, choose one piece from one theme and, after reading, talk with your child about the sentence that moved you most.
Parents can take turns reading sections aloud, making reading aloud a fixed ten-minute family activity.
After finishing the book, have the child retell one piece in their own words, then compare it with the original to feel the difference in language.

About the publisher

Peking University Press China · Founded in 1979

Peking University Press is a comprehensive university press whose publishing areas cover classical literature, popular science, social culture, world history, Western philosophy, and culture. Its catalogue contains 6,031 titles, with representative books including A Dream of Red Mansions, Relativity: The Special and General Theory (15th Edition) (with Einstein's classic papers on unified field theory and other topics), Elements, Conics, The Aristocratic Families of the Eastern Jin, The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume I), The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume II), and The Origin of Continents and Oceans. Representative authors include Cao Xueqin, Zhou Ruchang, Albert Einstein, Euclid, Apollonius, Tian Yuqing, Schelling, and Xian Gang. The press has developed distinctive strengths in classical Chinese literature and in the translation of Western philosophical classics, while also covering scientific classics and social and cultural studies. As public information is limited, this description is based only on the books in the catalogue and offers no further extrapolation.

版权信息
纸月
1
2
3
4
5
6
红门
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
岩石上的王
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
米溪
1
2
3
4
5
6
枫叶船
鸟船
花指头
1
2
3
4
5

FAQ

Do I have to use the CD to listen to the readings?

Not necessarily, but the model readings are an important feature. Listening before reading helps readers feel the rhythm and music of Chinese and makes it easier to turn written language into spoken expression. If no playback device is available, a parent or teacher reading aloud works just as well.

Which grade levels is it suitable for?

The material does not specify grade levels; judge by the child's reading foundation. The language is elegant and the themes lean toward life and emotion, so it is better suited to upper-primary children who can already read short pieces independently or who are willing to read with a parent; for younger children, parent-child reading aloud is recommended.

How is it different from an ordinary Cao Wenxuan anthology?

The author himself structured and selected the pieces by themes such as life, growth, emotion and wisdom, so the thematic thread is clearer; it also includes model readings and emphasizes entering text through sound rather than only silent reading.

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About the author

Cao Wenxuan Author · China · 1954

Cao Wenxuan, born in 1954 in Yancheng, Jiangsu, is a Chinese writer of children's literature and a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Chinese at Peking University. In 2016 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award, becoming the first Chinese author to win it. Rooted in youthful growth and rural life, his writing is lucid and restrained, revealing human resilience amid hardship and tenderness. His representative works, including Straw House and Bronze and Sunflower, are widely read. This library holds twenty of his works, such as Wandering, Ice Necklace and Fire Seal, along with classic reading and poetry anthologies, spanning social fiction, history and parenting, and reaching readers from children to adults.