The ink-and-wash painting technique is considered to be representative of traditional Chinese painting. Painters use a brush pen dipped in a mixture of ink and water, and paint on traditional paper. The basic ink-and-wash painting uses only water and ink, so there are only two colors, black and white. But more advanced ink-and-wash paintings like fine brushwork and bird-and-flower paintings use many colors. The ink is one of the most special elements in Chinese painting. Using different amounts of water, the ink can be diluted to varying gradations, from black to gray to white, a characteristic known as the “charm of ink”. This series of books portrays well-known Chinese children’s stories in traditional ink-and-wash paintings.