pThe narrator is a composite of people Pu Zhelong influenced in his work. With further context from Melanie Chan's historically precise watercolors, this story will immerse young readers in Chinese culture, the natural history of insects, and the use of biological controls in farming. Backmatter provides context and background for this lovely, sophisticated picture book about nature, science, and Communist China.ppThe first time I saw a scientist in my village was also the first time I saw a wasp hatch out of a moth's egg, writes the narrator of this picture book about Chinese scientist Pu Zhelong. In that moment I could not have said which was the more unexpected--or the more miraculous.ppIn the early 1960s, while Rachel Carson was writing and defending Silent Spring in the U.S., Pu Zhelong was teaching peasants in Mao Zedong's Communist China how to forgo pesticides and instead use parasitic wasps to control the moths that were decimating crops and contributing to China's widespread