A celebration of stories and the imagination, the characters in the illustration are: Aladdin and his magic lamp, riding on a flying carpet; Tinker Bell from Peter Pan, with stars swirling off her magic wand; Cinderella, from one of the best-known fairy tales in the world; the Monkey King, a superhero character from Chinese legend who can transform into 72 different images and travel one hundred thousand miles in one somersault; Anansi the Spider, a trickster-hero character from African folklore; the Tin Woodman, Lion, and Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz; the tortoise and the hare from Aesop's fables; and Jack and the ogre from Jack and the Beanstalk. The image of the child reading is based on Mr. Huang's son.

A native of Canton in China, Mr. Huang chose Canada as his adopted home. Nominated twice for the Governor General's Award, he won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award for The Dragon New Year (David Bouchard). His art was also honored with the Silver Medal at the Sixth National Fine Art Exhibition of China. His other books include The Great Race and The Mermaid's Muse, also by David Bouchard. He has been influenced both by traditional Chinese painting techniques and by western art of the 18th and 19th centuries. Painting in a soft edged realism, he moves easily between oils and watercolor.

"I drew from the time I was four years old. When I was fifteen, I was forced to leave school and sent to be a field laborer during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I worked in the fields for ten long years. Only painting could make me feel happy during this time. I had some art books and taught myself. Once the revolution was over, I was allowed to return home and was able to continue my formal studies in fine art."