Sue in Tibet

First hand account of Tibet during first 17 years of authors life when she lived there before the people of Tibet lost their land. Researcher Tricia Kehoe is a scholar of Tibet studies who came across a dusty old copy of 1942’s Sue in Tibet, an out-of-print adventure book with a female character as lead, and knew she’d found something special. In a report for BBC Kehoe recounts her experience finding the picture book that stars Sue Shelby, the first daughter of a missionary family, in Batang, a remote Sino-Tibetan border town. She learned that the author’s life was used as the premise, making Dorris Shelton Still a remarkable treasure of history waiting to be found. Between 1908 and 1921, Still’s family was stationed in Batang was missionaries. She considered the community home and was well immersed, though she and her sister were required to wear American dress. Sue and Dorris’ stories intersect: both made friends with Tibetan girls and met a reincarnated lama, who the real-life heroine once picnicked with after he was disbarred from religious leadership, having fallen in love. In the book, Sue miraculously becomes a message carrier for a military conference and thus a Batang hero, but in real life, the end of Dorris’ time in Tibet was not as sweet. She and her sister were shipped off to boarding school in 1921 and her father was shot and killed on a medical mission in Lhasa. The BBC reports that Shelton followed Tibetan causes in the United States throughout her long life but never returned to the land she loved as a child. Her book is a considered a rarity for its time, when few girls were the focus of children’s books. KIRKUS REVIEW Almost all of this story is based on the author's own childhood experiences which accounts for the vigor of its action and its excellent portrayal of that strange and fascinating country of Tibet. Sue's father is an American doctor who leaves China to go in to help the people of the Blue Mountains, though they have a horror of all foreigners and imagine that they have tails. The family take the very long and arduous trip in, accompanied by their gental and loyal Chinese cook and Sue's strangely companionable hen, Annie. On this Journey Sue learns that mountain turnips can quench thirst but that when you take one you replace it with a seed. The helpful and friendly attitude of the Americans wins the admiration and trust of the Tibetan population. The threatened war with the Chinese is averted by Sue herself when she has to take her father's place as peace envoy. The illustrations by William Arthur Smith will give our children a clearer idea of this little known section of the world.