Jeanne-Marie Yess Tran

The Woodcutter and the Moongirl Jeanne-Marie Yess Tran

The Woodcutter And The Moongirl is a written representation of the old Vietnamese folk tale about an orphaned teenage boy who lives alone now in his parents' house on the Da Lac highlands just down from the mountains of Vietnam. Bao now follows in his father's business of selling cut wood, which is hard work. After selling his cut wood in the market of his village in the morning, Bao takes his ox drawn cart up into the mountains where there are lots of trees to cut, and stops at the same tree every day. He unharnesses his ox so that it can roam around to find grass or brush to eat while Bao is cutting up his wood to sell the next morning. When late afternoon comes, Bao stops chopping and rests beneath this same tree with his hat over his face, and wakes up when the moon is high in the sky, lighting his way back home. But one night when Bao is gazing at the moon, something special happens.