Little Green was born in China in 1966-- at the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a dark time of violence, looting, reeducation, and the deaths of millions. Nowadays, it is referred to as "Ten Years of Great Calamity," which ended only with the death of Chairman Mao in 1976.

Chun Yu chose to write about the first ten years of her life, which coincide with these ten years of topsy-turviness, when China sought to cut its ties to its thousands of years of history and continue forward on its new political adventure-- but at such a heavy price! The book consists of a string of short, colorful vignettes that give you glimpses into a child's life... and hints of what others were experiencing as well.

Mr. Chesney sends Pilgrim Parties from Our World to a magical world. Once they have crossed over, it's like a massive roleplaying game-- with wizards and demons, and thieves and monsters, and adventure galore. It's massively profitable for Mr. Chesney... and it's a massive headache for the people of this world who have to pander to the tourists. When it falls upon the Wizard Derk to play the role of Dark Lord this tourist season, nothing goes right. Will they successfully manage to sabotage Mr. Chesney's thriving business... or will they merely destroy their own world in the process?

The concept is a really fun idea, but this was a little difficult to get into. I preferred Howl's Moving Castle a little better. One of the problems was just the sheer number of characters to keep track of. Another problem was that it was often difficult to remember who's a human and who's an animal-- one of Derk's special abilities is fusing human DNA with an animal's, to create intelligent creatures. Consequently, he has a number of griffins that he treats as his own children... but it can be difficult for the reader to remember which of his children have two legs, and which have four. Happily, once the book gets going, it's much easier to follow, and everything ties up neatly at the end.