Rejected fairy tale transformed into a tale of success

An illustration in The Only Child . provided to China daily

A Chinese illustrator's debut book inspired by her experience as an only child has been named as one of the best children's books of 2015.

The Only Child by Guo Jing has received critical acclaim and was selected from thousands of titles for best-of lists published by The New York Times and the Washington Post.

Published in the United States in December, the book sold out on Amazon within two weeks, although as the author explained, "That's partly because only 10,000 books were printed for the first edition. A second edition will be printed soon."

The pencil-drawn story follows the adventures of a young girl who falls asleep on a bus and gets lost in a forest, where she meets a flying deer, a whale and a seal that help her to return home.

"It's not just a tale of fantasy; it also reflects the lonely life of an only child in China in the 1980s," said Guo, 32, who based the story on her experience growing up in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.

One day, she recalled, her father had been in a rush to get to work and left her at a bus stop to travel to her grandparents' home. Like her character in The Only Child, Guo fell asleep on the way. When she awoke and got off the bus, she was in an unfamiliar forest.

"I felt scared and extremely lonely," she said.

Guo started to draw the book three years ago while working in Singapore as an illustrator. To complete it, she quit her job and moved back to her hometown.

China's one-child policy, which was scrapped with effect from Jan 1, had been in place since the late 1970s. According to estimates by demographer Yi Fuxian, the policy has meant that more than 200 million people grew up as the only child in their family.