“The sparrows are eating too much grain,” declares China's leader Mao Tse-tung—and the three-day Sparrow War begins. Every man, woman, and child must beat drums, clang gongs, and set off firecrackers to chase off the birds. Forced to fly until exhausted, these fragile creatures drop from the sky like fluttering teardrops.
Young Ming-Li loves the birds and fears what will happen if they are all killed. When her brother's pet pigeon dies, she secretly saves seven of the
|
fallen birds. She hides them away in an abandoned barn, nursing and caring for them.
The next spring, disaster strikes. There are no sparrows to eat the locusts and other insects that are devouring the grain fields. People are beginning to starve to death from the famine.
Can little Ming-Le and her seven small birds save her village?
|