In this picture book, William Bell addresses younger children with the seriousness and concern for humane values that mark his novels Forbidden City and Speak to the Earth. Bell’s years in China lie behind this story of traditional village life on a tropical river. The story itself has the timeless quality of a folk tale, as it tells of how a boy learns to distinguish reality from illusion through making a nearly fatal error. Like a folk tale hero, Gang-Gang is naive and impulsive, but good hearted; his desire to help ease his parents’ poverty leads him to mistake the broken reflections of moonlight on the river for silver coins, and he nearly drowns in his attempt to gather them. Bell presents the tale seriously, with an almost elegiac tone, showing how the child’s new obsession with money shatters his love for the river. The ending, however, restores and celebrates the traditional bonds of man and nature, as Gang-Gang resolves to earn the needed money by working as a fisherman alongside his father.

Bell’s approach shows respect for the understanding of young readers; he doesn’t editorialize on Gang-Gang’s mistake, but lets the reader share in the boy’s perceptions of what’s happening. The psychological intensity of the text is underlined by the rich colour washes of Ken Campbell’s illustrations and their focus on facial expression. Oranges and golds suggest the tropical heat, while unusual perspectives and angles of vision in the pictures are dynamic and rather unsettling. This is an unusual picture book, but one that will reward the perceptive reader.