★ By a Hans Christian Andersen Laureate: Written by Cao Wenxuan, the first Chinese author to win this prestigious award in 2016. His works have been translated into over 40 languages and published in more than 70 countries.
★ Proven Market Success: The series has sold over 1.5 million copies! Focusing on themes of love, courage, dignity, and growth, it is deeply humane and uniquely poetic. As the HCAA jury praised, he writes with "a poetic, water-like touch, capturing real and sorrowful moments of life."

"Illuminating every shadowed corner with love,
and warming the lonely hearts of children with light."
★ First Post-Award Masterpiece: This is Cao Wenxuan's first new work after winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award and serves as the opening volume of this series. Rights already sold: Arabic.
★ A Story of Empathy and Growth: Told with love and compassion, this book explores the inner world and transformative growth of an outcast boy. It beautifully depicts how he maintains his innocence and inner peace, ultimately finding reconciliation with both himself and the outside world.

Series Overview (8 Volumes)
Draft Through the Alley, Bat Fragrance, The Firefly King, Grass Shoe Bay, In Search of a Bird, A City Without Streets, Su Wu Tends Sheep, Who Took My Grandpa Away

A tale of a boy's loneliness and resilience, this is a story about guarding and respecting the innocence of childhood.
Because his father is a thief, a young boy named Oak is an outcast in his village. During the sweltering summer, while the other children enjoy the cool draft through the alley beneath the grass sheds, Oak spends his days alone in a vast, lonely world. Running freely and shouting across the rice paddies, riverbanks, and ponds, it is as if the entire world belongs only to him. However, after a series of thefts in the village, suspicion inevitably falls on Oak. To defend his dignity, the proud boy must find a way to prove his innocence...

Cao Wenxuan
Member of the Council of the China Writers Association; Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Peking University.
Winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award (April 2016) and the Outstanding Chinese Influencing the World Award (January 2017).
Recipient of over 50 major literary awards, including the National Book Award, the Chinese Government Award, the National Outstanding Children's Literature Award, and the Gold Award of the Soong Ching-ling Children's Literature Award.
His works have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Serbian, Arabic, Persian, and more.

Notable Novels: Straw House, Root Bird, Ximi, Bronze and Sunflower, Fire Mark, as well as the King's Book series, My Son Pika series, and Ding Ding Dang Dang series.
Selected Literary Collections: The Melancholy Pastoral, The Red Gourd, Following Eternity, The Sweet Orange Tree, etc.
Academic Works: A Study of Literary Phenomena in China in the 1980s, The Second World: A Philosophical Interpretation of Literature and Art, A Study of Literary Phenomena in China at the End of the 20th Century, The Door of Fiction, etc.

1 Summer Paradise
2 Short Fences, Long Fences
3 Watching in Silence
4 Nowhere to Hide
5 A Bird That Cannot Fly
6 Stories in the Dark
7 Following the Trail
8 The Goat in the Woods
9 The Last Twilight
10 Handcuffs
11 The Temple Across the River