Ellie, left, and Maria, right, hold up the books and Ellie’s drawings.

Ellie Xu, Year 7, loves drawing but she never thought her drawings would end up being published! Over two years, she worked on illustrations for a series of novels based on Chinese idioms, which has just been published.

New Novels based on Chinese Idioms (Series II): Legends in the Forests features Ellie’s line drawings of pandas, foxes and other animals as they bring fables to life.

Ellie worked on the drawings after school and during her holidays, refining over 300 pictures.

Legends in the Forests consists of mini stories for each idiom with a story line throughout all 60 idioms. It aims to stimulate interest in Chinese idioms through creative new fairy tales assimilated with contemporary children’s psychology. Ellie’s drawings are described as a highlight of the novels, and are on display in the Learning Commons.

New Novels based on Chinese Idioms (Series II)

Legends in the Forests

Written by: Feng Qi, Daqun Sun

Illustration by: Ellie Xu (Australia)