Story Worlds
Inside The Spring Path
The Spring Path is our Lunar New Year book. Five friends follow the river to find out where spring begins, and each one has a different idea.
The story
Koi, Fox, Crane, Frog and the quiet Orchid Mantis set off along the river, over fallen trees, through sudden rain and past a fork in the path.
Swipe through the story ›
Behind the scenes
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Japanese art. Our Crane print has gold accents, like the gold-leaf skies old painters used, and Koi swims through curling waves under a rising sun.
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Our VIPs voted. Before launch, Koi and Crane came out on top as the friends they most wanted as prints.
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Fox's first sketch. He already had his three tails, and there's a legend behind them.
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A surprise best seller. In the first weeks after launch, Tree Frog quietly hopped ahead.
Fun facts to share at bedtime
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Kitsune, the fox spirit of Japanese folklore, grows more tails as it gets older and wiser, up to nine. Our Fox has three.
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Red-crowned cranes stand for long life, hope and harmony in traditional Japanese paintings.
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Orchid mantises look like flowers. One study found they drew in even more insects than real flowers did.
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Koi swimming against the current stand for strength and not giving up.
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Tree frogs climb with sticky toe pads, and some can change color to blend in.
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Lion dances go back more than 1,000 years in China. The drums and cymbals are meant to scare away bad luck.
The heart of the story
Each friend expects spring somewhere different. In the end, they figure it out together:
Spring wasn't ahead of us. It was with us the whole way.
Ask at bedtime Where do you think spring begins?
The characters (and their valley)
Each friend has a print of their own, and so do the lion dancers at the festival.
Read it together
It's a sturdy board book, with a read-aloud on YouTube and the eBook on Amazon Kindle.
