That's not how you deal with a problem like that. You really need to get an adult involved. You don't want to end up in a situation where the bully is actually violent with you. There are only threats in this story, but kids aren't going to come up with the solution to bullying on their own. This whole book is a bad idea. Don't do this.

It's silly and rather surreal, with pretty pictures. There's not much to it beyond a lovely flight of imagination, and an implication that we're witnessing the beginnings of something truly unusual.

It's kind of unusual to be fascinated by spirals, or any shape for that matter. Spirals don't really do anything by themselves, as it's more what is spiraling and why that is the important thing. But getting kids to recognize the pattern of their existence is the first step.

Very cute. It's a playful exploration of what you can pretend boxes to be. The line drawings are charming and imaginative, and the plot is true to how children love to play in boxes.

The boy is humbled by the quiet integrity of his grandfather and learns his lesson in a more subtle, realistic way than a lot of books with the same moral.

So, yeah. Magical solution to an actual real problem. That I really have. I'm pretty sure if I told my child, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit," (he's almost three) he would throw a fit. And it's about as condescending as "Because I said so." Who gets to decide "what you get"?

So he just solves the problem through anger? That's weird. It's kind of strange, because there's no real location for this. He's depicted as being in a town with a church, and houses and such, but there's a bunch of monkeys in the tree.

Ping is the only one who brought an empty pot, so he's the only honest child in the entirety of China, so he's going to be the emperor.

Not really a very interesting story. It's got cute pictures. It's kind of silly. But I'm not that impressed with the writing. There's definitely no message. It's just a very strange book and not very useful.

It's cute. I guess it really has the message of "Don't let yourself get boxed in by the story." "Don't kowtow to fate." Maybe that's reading too much into it, and it doesn't have a message at all, but that's the message I see in it. Which is a good message.