historical fiction identification: rome, china
July 26, 2006 6:20 PM 
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Historical fiction children's book ID filter: scholars and bandits in 1930s China and bull-jumping children in Rome.
Two books of historical fiction for children/young adults, read in 1950s/1960s.
1. Set in 1930s China during tumult involving warlords and bandits. A Chinese scholar's son is sent to live with peasants because his father thinks he'll be safer there; unfortunately, the village is soon raided. The bandit chief's horse rears and a fancy ancient teapot falls from his saddlebag; the boy recognizes its age and value and catches it. This amuses the bandit, and the boy is taken with them to their camp, where he meets an American missionary's son, also captured, and another scholar. They attempt to teach the missionary child Chinese, but he has difficulty with tones and keeps using the word for "mushroom."
2. Begins with a prologue in which archaeologists are puzzled by a cameo which shows the heads of three children from widely separated parts of the Roman Empire. Story explains that they were captured/sold into slavery from various parts of the empire, thrown together in Rome, ended up bull-jumping in Crete, possibly dispersed from there by natural disaster (?). I'm pretty sure that it's not any of the Rosemary Sutcliffe novels, nor is it the (fairly recent) mystery series about children in Rome.
Any ideas?
2. The Deadly Dance, by Cora Taylor?
School Library Journal Review: Gr 7 Up–Penny and her parents are on vacation in Crete when she discovers a way to time travel in the Palace of Knossos, home of the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. Back home, the 15-year-old is a gymnast, and while viewing the fresco of a bull dancer, she is inspired to try the opening flip to one of her vaults. She lands in the arena in ancient times with a bull charging at her. It is unclear how she returns the first time, but later Penny finds various ways to travel back and forth between modern and ancient Crete. In the present, Penny's parents nag her about not eating enough, while she remembers verbal abuse from her coach who says she's overweight. In ancient Knossos, Penny is welcomed into a troupe of bull dancers, acrobats who provide entertainment by performing stunts and trying to stay alive in the ring with a bull. She finds success and confidence with them and begins to fall in love with one of the other dancers. An earthquake partially destroys the palace, allowing the dancers to escape from their captivity. Penny returns to her time feeling better able to deal with her issues, and at the airport for the flight home, she befriends a boy who reminds her of her ancient love. The underlying issue of eating disorders is too heavily imposed on the slight plot, and Penny's conflicts with her brother as a partial reason for the trip go mostly unexplained. Readers may be more engaged by reading the myths of ancient Greece
posted by icontemplate at 7:38 PM on July 26, 2006