As a young girl listens to her grandmother, she tells a story of the great race of twelve animals, the grandmother must repeat the story again to the young girl. The grandmother expresses the importance of not only listening to what the story is generally about but in which sequence the story takes place. She tells of the twelve animals that was called by the Great Buddha to be the first to reach the Jade City. Whoever reaches the city first will be of most importance and the last to reach the city would be of least importance. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that there are more important things than being the fastest or first in a race.

I've never been interested in the Chinese Zodiac, but this was a very good book. The illustrations are wonderful paintings and the story line is very well written. The relationship between the animals is quite different than what someone would expect.

This book would be a wonderful tool to use with an English lesson of fantasy, seeing how the animals take on human like characteristics. This book could also be used in a multicultural lesson.