Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants BY BARBARA ANN PORTE ILLUSTRATED BY ANNIE CANNON
To my friends in Oak Ridge Tennessee who tell me things I need to know to write my books especially Donna and Dave Reichle Mimi and Murray Rosenthal Sheila and Mike Saltmarsh Nancy and Bob Van Hook B A P To Barbara Ann and to Anne B for their care in detecting the future in the past and the past in the future A C
ages ago in China a little girl named Ma Jiang lived with her mother and her father and her three brothers Two of the brothers were nearly grown but the third one Bao was still a baby Selling orange ants was how the Ma family earned their living Though it didn't make them rich they had everything they needed to get by food clothes shelter and medicine to put on ant bites
