I was very surprised to get this fascinating book The Sun and the Shade! The peacock displays its fine tail feathers, only to be overshadowed by the rays of the Sun. The Shade races against the Sun only to compete and set off each other. This ordinary but grand picture is just shining in the book! Such a delicate picture book with Chinese characteristics is quite unusual with both charm of the traditional Chinese painting and the essence of traditional Chinese culture, such as alternation of Yin and Yang and balance of heaven and earth. This is not only a beautiful story but also one full of philosophy!
—Yu Zi, a host of Guangdong News Radio and author of the WeChat official account “Evolution of Two-Child Mothers”.

Heaven and earth are eternal. Yin and Yang alternate with each other. The unique charm of this book is created with “Yang” and “Yin”. The Sun and the Shade are innocent and mischievous just like two kids in their first years of life. Their game is played by contrasting exposure with hiding and also light with shade. With the colors and pictures of the traditional Chinese painting, every single detail of the story is expressed vividly and perfectly to allow kids to experience the way of life and the world, including mutual generation between Yin and Yang, interdependence of light and shade, and awareness of “you” in addition to “I”.
—Gu Dapeng, Doctor at the School of Chinese Classics, Renmin University of China, and Associate Professor of Department of Chinese, Zhejiang International Studies University.

The Sun and the Shade are something about the nature of our world, such as bigness vs smallness, movement vs immobility, exposure vs hiding, and ability vs inability. Combining these words with their meanings, a world where we live comes into being, vast, prosperous, harmonious and cozy. What a wonderful world with both the Sun and the Shade!
—Zhao Xia, Doctor of Literature and Associate Researcher of Children’s Culture Research Institute, Zhejiang Normal University.

★ Awards and honors:
· Recommended Reading List of Children's Picture Books of the Ministry of Education (2021 Edition)
· Graded Reading List for Chinese Primary School Students (2020 Edition)
· The Most Beautiful Picture Book in China for 2020
· Top 50 Children’s Books of 2019 at Beijing Reading Season
· 100 Excellent Picture Books in China for 2019 by Yourbay
· Top 10 Original Picture Books in China for 2018
· The Excellent Picture Book of 2018 by “童书妈妈三川玲” (name of a WeChat official account on children’s education )
· First Prize of Excellent Books of National City Press for 2018
★Attentively created by Mr. Zhang Zhilu, a famous author of children’s literature, this picture book is extremely philosophic full of simple and meaningful words on complicated philosophical concepts, such as movement vs immobility, exposure vs hiding, and bigness vs smallness. The book is suitable for parent-child shared reading, in which both adults and kids could discover the joy of reading.
★Wu Mao, a famous illustrator, perfectly elaborates the story and offers new imagination with magnificent and vivid pictures imbued with elements of Dunhuang frescoes. Appreciating such pictures with strong Chinese flavor, children could receive good aesthetic education unconsciously.

This story is about a running race between the little, mischievous Sun and the Shade. With very simple words, the book tells a story from the children’s perspective about movement vs immobility, exposure vs hiding, bigness vs smallness, ability vs inability, etc.

Zhang Zhilu is an author and playwright. He is also Chairman of Children’s Film Committee, China Film Association. He was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Wu Mao is a famous Chinese illustrator and picture book author. As Director of Illustration Department, Shandong University of Arts, he undertakes illustration and picture book creation teaching and research. He won Gold Award and Grand Prize of Global Illustration Award at Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) as well as Golden Apple Award at Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB). He has published picture books The Story of Grandma Snow Flower, The Sun and the Shade, Yu Kwang Chung Poetry and Painting Collection, Chinese Sweet Dumplings, The Story of Mr. Nanguo, etc., and illustrated children novels Ponies on the Street and Through Winds and Thunders.