Chinese New Year Books for Kids

It has been a very long time since I've posted anything. Many apologies to my readers! 

In August, we welcomed baby Ailin (爱霖), whose name I translate (with some creative liberties) as "deluge of love." Born during a summer downpour, she is all sweetness but being a mommy to three has taken more of me than I imagined, and I am just now starting to write down all the ideas that have been circling in my head for months.

In honor of Year of the Horse, here is a list (and mini reviews) of some of my kids' and my favorite English-language children's books about the New Year.  

My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz (Henry Holt and Company: NY, 2004) is the story of how a little girl prepares for the Chinese New Years with her family: sweeping the bad luck away with a broom, purchasing plum blossoms, getting a haircut and wearing new clothes. The book features Katz’s signature colorful and endearing illustrations. Unlike Katz’s board books, this book is geared toward older babies, toddlers or even preschool age.

  

In Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin (Alfred A. Knopf: NY, 2008), a young girl tells of her family's preparations for the Lunar New Year: hanging red couplets, making dumplings, sweeping the floors, getting a haircut, and wearing new clothing. The celebration culminates in a dragon dance, which is depicted on a large three-page fold-out. 

Children will be swept into the New Year's celebrations by Lin's vibrant illustrations. Parents will appreciate the cultural notes Lin provides about the traditions described in her book. 

A New Year’s Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong and Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press: Mass, 2011) tells the story of Chinese New Year, as experienced by Maomao, a young girl whose father works far away, and can travel home only for the important holiday. When the father arrives home, the family of three make sticky rice balls (yuanxiao), fix up the house, and watch a dragon dance weave its way through town.

The illustrations are touching, the bright colors of the Chinese New Year celebration and child’s clothing contrast the dark colors of the father’s clothing.  I love this book because it captures Chinese New Year as experienced by many families across China. It captures both the joy of being reunited as well as the sorrow of separation when the father must return to work, all through a child’s eyes.

Long Long’s New Year: A Story about the Chinese Spring Festival (Tuttle Publishing: Boston, 2005) is a story about a young boy (Long Long) who helps his grandfather (a cabbage seller) earn enough money to buy food and supplies for his family’s Spring Festival. 

The story captures the hustle and bustle of small village life in the days leading up to New Years. The illustrations, which look like they were painted on antique rice paper, are replete with details of village life and will appeal to adults and children who will enjoy looking for hidden details.

Silk Peony, Parade Dragon by Elizabeth Steckman (Boyd Mills Press: PA, 1997) is the story of Silk Peony, a magnificent dragon who is rented by a powerful mandarin for the annual New Year’s parade. Based on legend, this is the story of how the dragon came to lead the New Year’s parade.  The traditional story and whimsical illustrations of dragons are sure to appeal to young children and the young at heart.

The Star Maker by Laurence Yep (Harper Collins: NY, 2011) tells the story of young Artie during the months leading up to Chinese New Year in San Francisco Chinatown during the 1950s. Throughout the book, Artie is vexed with how he will come up with the money to buy firecrackers**for all of his cousins to set off during the Lunar New Year, a boast he made to his cousin Petey during a family dinner. This is a story of a young child’s perceptions of family (his idolization of his Uncle Chester, disdain for cousin Petey, and respect for Granny), in the context of 1950s Chinatown. A chapter book, this will most appeal to kids in 1st-3rd grade. 

**Parents, don't worry: In the preface, Yep explains that even though firecrackers were legal when he was a child, he always set them off when his parents were close by. He encourages children reading his story to stay away from firecrackers due to their danger**

Book Review: Home is a Roof Over a Pig

Aminta Arrington’s Home is a Roof Over a Pig: An American Family’s Journey in China (The Overlook Press, NY: 2012) chronicles the multi-year transition and adaptation of her American suburban family (consisting of the author, her husband, and three young children--including a daughter adopted from China) to life in the small town of Tai’an in Shandong, China.

I love this book because of its many interwoven themes. It is, simultaneously, an adoption tale, a tale about encountering, engaging, and ultimately embracing another culture, and a tale about the Chinese language.

Adoption: The author relates how she and her husband decided to adopt their daughter Grace. She tells about their first trip to China to bring Grace home, and their decision to return to China--to, as a family, learn about the country and language of their daughter’s birth and to give their daughter a sense of pride about who she was and where she came from. 

I'm impressed by the dedication of Arrington and her husband in not only providing their adopted daughter with this experience, but also her American-born brother and sister. 

Cultural Encounter: The author highlights instances when her family is, at first, distanced from the local culture due to a language barrier, but also how they are slowly drawn into a local community, through their children’s involvement at a local preschool (as well as their own teaching experience at local colleges).

I find it refreshing that Arrington openly struggles, at times, with apparent cultural difference (e.g. her students’ necessity to think and sometimes believe only the facts as they are presented in their textbook vs. the American value of critical thinking).

Chinese Language: Each chapter is organized around one Chinese character or phrase (e.g. lei 累, or “tired”). The author talks about the different elements/radicals that make up the character (e.g. “field” 田 and “silk” 丝) and the overall meaning when the elements are combined. This is a really technique effective in terms of storytelling and it also makes the reader feel like they’re really learning something about the Chinese language.

Final take-away:  There are not very many books about American families with children living in China, and fewer yet about American families living in a small Chinese town. Arrington's book provides an entertaining and informative window into that world: we see the ups and downs, the challenges, and (best yet!) the successes as her family adapts to and embraces the Chinese language and culture. 

Holiday Reading: Starry River of the Sky

My daughter (age 7) and I just finished reading Grace Lin's newest novel Starry River of the Sky (Little and Brown, 2012). This magical story is about a young boy, Rendi, and the people he meets--both human and mystical--in the small, remote Village of Clear Sky. Who is Rendi? Who are these people he meets? And where did the moon go? These are some of the questions that you will ask yourself as you read this mysterious tale.

Lin's book is considered a companion book to her 2010 Newberry Honor novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Like her earlier book, Starry River of the Sky is full of Chinese legends, which have been adapted by Lin and told as stories by the main characters. Lin seamlessly alternates between Chinese legends and the plot unfolding at Village of Clear Sky. The effect is spellbinding and also gives the story a timeless quality--as if the story takes place in a time long past, but resisting to be tied down to a particular era (or dynasty).

Colorful, jewel-tone illustrations, which bring to mind traditional Chinese papercuts, mark the beginning of each chapter. And six full-color illustrations, resembling Chinese wood block prints, intersperse the story text.  The warm, vibrant illustrations are beautiful works of art by themselves. They bring to life in the reader's imagination a magical world the reader will be reluctant to leave.

My daughter was enchanted with the main characters in this story--Rendi, Peiyi, Madame Chang, Master Chao, and Mr. Shan. When we reached the last page, she asked me, with concern in her voice, "Is that it?" As a side note, she asks me this every time we reach the last page of one of Grace Lin's novels--I think this is a sign of an excellent book!

Starry River of the Sky would be a wonderful book to read with your child or grandchild over the upcoming holidays. Not only is it a page-turner, the magical story will be sure to provoke much conversation afterward.

Be sure to check out Grace Lin's website where you can view her mini-documentary "Behind the Story" and related activities--including instructions on how to make a toad lantern!

No Turkey? No Worries!

Not having turkey for Thanksgiving? Don't worry! Going sans turkey is nothing to be ashamed of.

This is the message of Duck for Turkey Day by Jacqueline Jules. Tuyet, a young Vietnamese American girl, is upset when she learns that her family will be having duck for Thanksgiving instead of turkey, which she believes is the "rule" for the holiday. Tuyet's disappointment continues on the holiday, despite actually enjoying the duck with spicy sauce with her family. When she returns to school, though, she discovers that she is not alone, and that many of her classmates also did not eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

My daughter pointed out that this book would have come in handy last year when we ate Chinese food with my in-laws last Thanksgiving (see A Stir-fried Thanksgiving). Not being a turkey eater, I was thrilled to eat stir-fries and crab on Thanksgiving, but at the time, my rule-abiding daughter, was not as convinced that it was okay.

Now, my daughter is one year older, and she is not worried about whether or not we'll have turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.  We'll have a feast, that's for sure--a spring greens salad with cranberries, toasted pine nuts, and goat cheese; a pancetta, kale, and acorn squash risotto; a roasted-to-perfection chicken; an assortment of roasted root vegetables; and a simple yet always delicious apple crumble--but the focus will be on enjoying our time together.   

The message of Duck for Turkey Day resonates with wise words spoken by Marcie on the beloved Thanksgiving animated classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving after Peppermint Patty criticizes the Thanksgiving feast (a piece of toast, pretzel sticks, and popcorn) Charlie Brown has prepared, "Thanksgiving is more than eating...We should just be thankful for being together." 


Here's to togetherness and popcorn, toast, duck, or whatever you will be eating on Thursday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Books for Babies and Toddlers about Chinese Culture

            

As I perused my local library for new books to read my kids, I stumbled upon Round as a Mooncake: a book of shapes (Chronicle Books, 2000) and Red Is a Dragon: a book of colors (Chronicle Books, 2001), written by Roseanne Thong and illustrated by Grace Lin.  Here's a quick review in case you are searching for a good book with themes of Chinese culture for your baby or toddler.

They are two books of a three-part series that introduces basic concepts (shapes, colors, and numbers) to young children in a multi-cultural (Asian and Western) context. I was bummed that my library didn't have the third in this series is One is a Drummer: a book of numbers (Chronicle Books 2003).

With their beautiful illustrations and lilting text, I would have loved to have read these books to my children when they were little.  According to her website, Thong's inspiration for these books was her own daughter, Maya. She wanted to read books about shapes they found in Hong Kong but could find none that fit this description so she wrote Round as a Mooncake. This was followed by Red Is a Dragon, a story about colors, and One is a Drummer, a book about numbers. 

What I love about these books:

• Grace Lin's illustrations. I can't help it. I adore Grace Lin's illustrations; they are a feast for the eyes with vibrant colors, beautiful patterns and scenes full of charming details.
• Basic colors, shapes, and numbers are introduced using things commonly found in Hong Kong, China, or even a Chinese American family: a yellow incense stick, a round rice bowl, one dragon boat.
• The rhyming text is sing-songy (in a good way) and decorated with fun phrases like "crunchy kale" and "a bowl of goldfish."
• At the end of each book is an author's note where Chinese items mentioned in the story are defined and explained, making these books accessible for non-Chinese families as well. 

 Which multi-cultural books do you enjoy reading to your baby or toddler?

Chinese Characters--look for the story

I’m teaching my daughter and her friend how to write Chinese characters as part of their weekly lesson (see my post from last week about our new Chinese language co-op).  Since they are also encountering new vocab and grammar patterns almost every week, I try to introduce only one or two new characters at a time.

Instead of forcing my daughter and her friend to copy the new characters hundreds of times (which was how I learned...and then promptly forgot), I look for creative ways to keep the characters fresh and alive in their minds.  One idea that I've been looking into lately is  imagining the character as part of a larger drawing and/or making up a story about that drawing. 

Illustrator, author, and graphic designer Christoph Niemann does this brilliantly in The Pet Dragon. He illustrates the meaning of Chinese characters by making them part of his illustrations for a story about a little girl named Lin Lin and the little dragon she receives as a gift. For some characters, Niemann employs the historical meaning of the pictograph (i.e. the character for “person” is meant to look like a walking person; Niemann draws this  character on top of a walking Lin).  But for others, Niemann creates his own interpretations of characters (i.e. the character fu, father, becomes Lin’s angry father’s eyebrows and moustache).  

Niemann is upfront with his intentions for this book—it is not to teach Chinese but to inspire kids to learn more. And that's what I loved about the book: it inspired me to look for the story, whether intentioned or unintended, in the characters. By asking my daughter and her friend to help create the story, this will help them remember the character—or at least that's my theory.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

How do you help kids remember Chinese characters?