The Umbrella Queen by Shirin Yim Bridges illustrated by Taeeum Yoo

For hundreds of years the people of this village in Thailand have been making umbrellas. Large, small, paper, silk, in all colours with beautiful designs of flowers and butterflies. Every year on New Years Day the village people hold a big parade which is led by the woman who has painted the most beautiful umbrella. 

Noot is very young. She would love to lead the parade but she has not yet been allowed to paint an umbrella. Finally Noot is allowed to try some painting but she must follow exactly the same pattern as the one painted by her mother. Noot does an excellent job but when she is trusted to continue painting on her own she changes the set pattern and adds

"... an elephant chasing the butterflies instead. Around the rim of the umbrella, the little elephant chased butterflies. On her second umbrella .. the little elephant ... was practising handstands."

Noot is in trouble. The umbrellas made by her family must follow the traditional pattern. Noot knows her family need money so she paints the set patterns but at night she uses scraps of materials to make her tiny creations with her own elephant designs. You can probably guess the ending especially when I tell you the King will make a visit to the village and Noot's tiny and different umbrellas catch his eye.

Read the full plot description here. 

This story made me nostalgic for a story I adored as a child - The Chinese Umbrella by Dorothy Rowe. Tonight I made an amazing discovery.  I have an old book from my childhood called The Youngest Omnibus edited by Rosalind Vallance.  I previously mentioned this book as the source of that story but in my mind the illustrations were in colour and in the omnibus they are black and white. Then I remembered one of my old school readers (and luckily I have a copy) - Travelling On. I found my story with coloured illustrations. My smile tonight is huge!

Click here to see a pdf of the whole book (The Chinese Umbrella is from page 32)

Pairing a picture book with a novel can be a powerful way to extend understanding and appreciation of a text.  Many years ago I recommended this little book - Silk Umbrella's to a Grade 3 teacher. She loved reading this with her class but I do wish I had known about The Umbrella Queen because it is the perfect companion read.

I would also pair this book with The Tiny Kite of Eddie Wing.

Shirin Yin Bridges is the author of one of my favourite picture books - Ruby's wish illustrated by Sophie Blackall.

And I made another discovery (I am having such a happy time with The Umbrella queen).  Taeeun Yoo is the illustrator of another book I often refer to - Strictly no Elephants. And she did the cover for Tua and the Elephant. You might also look for The Little Red Fish which a child once gifted to our school library because he had loved it SO much.

Kirkus review