170:, there are five brothers who "all looked exactly alike." They each possess a special talent: the first brother can swallow the sea, the second has an unbreakable iron neck, the third can stretch his legs to incredible lengths, the fourth is immune to burning, and the fifth can hold his breath forever. The five live with their mother by the sea. The first brother, a fisherman, is able to catch rare fish that sell at the market quite well, allowing the family to live comfortably. One day, he agrees to let a young boy accompany him on his fishing trip. He holds the entire sea in his mouth so that the boy can retrieve fish and other sea treasures from the seabed. When he can no longer hold in the sea, he frantically signals for the boy to return to shore. The boy ignores him, and then drowns in the sea when the man is forced to expel the water.
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goodbye, before each method of execution is attempted. The second brother, with his iron neck, cannot be beheaded; the third brother, with his ability to stretch his legs all the way to the bottom of the ocean, cannot be drowned; the fourth brother, with his immunity to burning, is unharmed at the stake, and the fifth brother, with his ability to hold his breath, survives overnight in an oven full of whipped cream. Finally, the judge decrees that since the man could not be executed, he must have been innocent. The man is released, and all five brothers live happily ever after with their mother.
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The first brother returns alone, and is accused of murder and sentenced to death. However, one by one, his four brothers assume his place before four attempts at execution. They are each able to carry forth this deception, by convincing the judge to let them return home briefly to bid their mother
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article, Selma G. Lanes described the illustrations as "cheerful and highly appealing", characterizing Wiese's "broad cartoon style" as "well suited to the folk-tale, a genre which deals in broad truths".
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about the
Chinese, particularly through its illustrations, and many teachers have removed the book from their classrooms. However, the book has had some defenders. In a 1977
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Through the
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Zaniello, Thomas A. (1974). "Heroic
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Reading into Racism: Bias in
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Lanes, Selma G. (October 1977). "A Case for the Five
Chinese Brothers".
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Schwarz, Albert V. (1977). "The Five
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listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for
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How Do We Tell the
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146:Kurt Wiese
48:Kurt Wiese
469:All Alone
409:Works by
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57:English
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