Gr. 3^-6, younger for reading aloud. Demi's lively illustrations, shining with gold-leaf details, enrich this story of Rani, a clever young woman who uses her skill in mathematical thinking to outwit a self-indulgent raja and secure food for her starving people. When the raja wishes to reward Rani for a good deed, Rani asks for one grain of rice, with the amount to be doubled each day for 30 days. Demi's illustrations become increasingly rich as each day a different animal parades across vibrantly colored backgrounds to deliver rice. Children will be as surprised as the raja to see how quickly Rani's rice accumulates as the trick unfolds, and they'll be just as satisfied as Rani to see the selfish raja's rice supply diminish. The illustrations amplify the suspense and humor, until finally, on the last day, 256 mighty elephants march across a four-page foldout to deliver their bundles. Teachers are sure to appreciate the book's multiple uses within the curriculum (Demi includes a table showing the math involved), and everyone will enjoy the triumph of good over evil achieved by a clever trick and math. Karen Morgan
From Kirkus Reviews
In artwork inspired by Indian miniatures (though lacking their exquisiteness), Demi (The Stonecutter, 1995, etc.) fashions a folktale with far-reaching effects. The raja of a rice-growing village orders his subjects to deliver to him the bulk of their harvest; he will keep it safe should a famine occur. A few years later the harvest fails, and so does the raja: ``Promise or no promise, a raja must not go hungry,'' he intones. When a young village girl, Rani, returns to the raja some rice that had fallen from baskets laden for his consumption, he offers her a reward. Her request is seemingly modest: a grain of rice on the first day, two grains the next, four grains on the third; each day double the rice of the day before, for 30 days. The raja, though, doesn't grasp the power of doubling. Day 21 garners 1,048,576 grains of rice; on the last day it takes fold-out flaps to show the herd of elephants necessary to convey the rice to Rani, who feeds the masses and extracts from the raja a promise to be more generous. This gratifying story of the disarming of greed provides an amazing look at the doubling process, and a calendar at the end shows how the reward simply grew and grew. (Picture book/folklore. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1942, Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt was called “Demi” by her father, a nickname that stuck. Her family was deeply involved in the arts: her father was an architect and actor, her mother was a noted painter, her great-grandfather was the American painter William Morris Hunt, and her great-great-uncle was the architect Richard Morris Hunt. With her mother's encouragement, Demi studied studio art, silk-screening, jewelry-making, mural painting, and ceramics from an early age. She went on to study art at the Rhode Island School of Design, Los Angeles' Immaculate Heart College, and the University of Baroda in India's Gujarat State.
Demi's travels have taken her to many different countries, including Guatemala, Brazil, England, and Japan. She has painted murals in Mexico, and closer to home painted the dome of St. Peter & Paul Church in Wilmington, California. But it was her interest in Eastern art styles and in Buddhism that led her to China, which would provide the inspiration and setting for her first children's book, Lu Pan, the Carpenter's Apprentice, published in 1978. Since then, she has created more than 130 books for children, many of which are adaptations of Chinese folktales. Her work is wide-ranging, however, and also includes concept and puzzle books, picture-book biographies, fables, and novelty board books.
Demi lives in Washington State with her husband, Tze Si (Jesse) Huang. They have one son.
