The story of two legendary female kung fu masters who may have lived in the last part of the 17th century. The first, Wu Mei, born to an aristocratic family, was educated like a boy and excelled at martial arts. Made homeless by the overthrow of the last Ming emperor (1644), the young woman finds her way to the Shaolin Monastery, made famous in television and movies. She convinces the monks to continue her training and becomes a nun and renowned teacher of kung fu. After she rescues the scatterbrained daughter of a bean-curd seller from thieves, the girl begs for her help in escaping a forced marriage to a local thug. Wu Mei advises Mingyi to postpone the wedding for a year, promising the odious would-be groom that she will marry him only if he can best her at kung fu. The year is long enough for a crash course, focusing on the development and use of qi, or vital energy. As she studies, Mingyi develops into a calm, sturdy young woman who gains her freedom. McCully steeped herself in Chinese painting, but develops her own fresh interpretation of classic Chinese art. She alternates a format of using succeeding frames with double-page spreads that evoke the sweep of Chinese scroll paintings. The last scenes, depicting the climactic fight, show that the result of Mingyi's self-mastery is not lost on the young girls of the village. Celebrating discipline and inner strength while retelling legends connected with styles of kung fu, this story authentically re-creates a period of Chinese history and gives readers not one but two lively heroines.?Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.