Hailed by Entertainment Weekly and the Wall Street Journal as a best book of the year, this gorgeous and imaginative story-part picture book, part graphic novel-is utterly transporting and original. “ book that is wise and humorous, and one to be perused and savored.” - School Library Journal

“Any young reader (with calculator handy) will enjoy the tale.” - Scientific American “ Clever and quietly told in simple, yet evocative language.” - Kirkus Reviews This original story set in fifteenth-century China will captivate readers and perhaps teach them a little about mathematics.” - Booklist The baffled Emperor obliges-only to discover that if you’re as clever as Pong Lo, you can turn a single grain of rice into all the wealth and happiness in the world! He asks for a single grain of rice, doubled every day for one hundred days. And when he concocts a potion that saves the Princess’s life, the Emperor gladly offers him any reward he chooses-except the Princess. Whoever heard of a peasant marrying a princess?īut Pong Lo is wiser than the Emperor knows. When a humble farmer named Pong Lo asks for the hand of the Emperor’s beautiful daughter, the Emperor is enraged. Over 200,000 copies sold! This classic mathematical folktale tells the story of a clever farmer who outwits the Emperor of China and becomes the wealthiest man in the world-all starting with one grain of rice.

The weaving of a dream by marilee heyer