From the Orient...with love.

A heart-warming love letter from Ray Simmons, an American professor and ESL teacher, to some of the best students he ever had, Yen-Shen is the furthest thing from an academic treatise on folktales.

It is not a book comparing Western and Chinese fairy tales, either. This little book is a lot less rigid and a lot more...intimate.

It is the story of students sharing with a foreign teacher, one of the most beloved tales from their culture.

People who ask questions about why the teacher didn't say this or lecture about that are completely missing the point. This was a fun night out for Ray and his Chinese students. The point was not academics or lessons. It was to get the students to have fun and speak English in an environment outside the classroom.

That night out would prove to be a magical one that would inspire Ray to author this book to help give English teachers and others a glimpse of how wonderful teaching can be, with a handful of memorable incidents of some of students, sprinkled at the beginning of this book. It may be argued that some people will find this annoying and probably doesn't make sense from an economic viewpoint.

But that's okay. This really isn't about the money. It was narrated out of love.

If you want to get an idea of the possibilities of life as an ESL teacher living and working in a foreign country, particularly China, Yeh-Shen is the book you need to read!