In this story, two elves catch an old monk when they patrol the mountain and wait for their king back to eat the monk together. But the old monk would rather stay hungry than eating the meat that the elves give him. Now he is so hungry that he is dying. So, the two elves decide to sneak into a village and learn cooking. They then master how to make the spring cake in spring, the new tea in Grain Rain (the 6th solar term), the chestnut cake in autumn, the dumplings in winter. Thanks to the delicacies they prepare, the old monk becomes fair and chubby. The two elves also fall in love with the food of mankind and do not want to catch and eat people at all.
This highly creative story is written in language full of the charm of nursery rhythms. It integrates knowledge about solar terms and traditional food, which makes it an excellent showcase of traditional culture.

Huang Xiaoheng is a writer of children’s literature and picture books, a national registered psychological counselor, and a promotor of reading picture books. Some of her works have been adapted into cartoons. She has won several Hsin yi Picture Book Awards.

LI Zhuoying, who graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, received her master’s degree in animation

from the AKV/St. Joost School of Fine Art & Design in the Netherlands. Her main works include picture books like How the Princess Picks Her Nose and Strolling Chicken. She was the finalist for the 5th Feng Zikai Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award and for Picture Book Creation Award of the 2nd Hsin yi Picture Book Award. Her works were

selected for the 2019 Bologna Children’s Book Fair & Chinese Original Illustration Exhibition at Tehran International Book Fair.