February 12 is the Lunar New Year and it’s the Year of the Ox! Whether you’re celebrating or hoping to learn more about Lunar New Year traditions, we have some books for you.
Books about Lunar New Year:
A New Year’s Reunion: A Chinese Story
By Yu Li-Qiong
Illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Paperback
ISBN 9780763667481 | Candlewick
Little Maomao’s father works in faraway places and comes home just once a year, for Chinese New Year. At first Maomao barely recognizes him, but before long the family is happily making sticky rice balls, listening to firecrackers, and watching the dragon dance in the streets below. Papa gets a haircut, makes repairs to the house, and hides a lucky coin for Maomao to find. Which she does! But all too soon it is time for Papa to go away again. This poignant, vibrantly illustrated tale, which won the prestigious Feng Zikai Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award in 2009, is sure to resonate with every child who misses relatives when they are away – and shows how a family’s love is strong enough to endure over time and distance.
Baby’s First Chinese New Year
By DK
14 Pages | Ages 0-2 | Board
ISBN 9781465484017 | DK Children
The bright and colorful images in this book are the perfect way to discover the new year holiday traditions together. From colorful lanterns, to beautiful traditional clothes, to special animals that each year is named after, Baby’s First Chinese New Year features all the familiar favorites associated with one of Asia’s biggest and brightest celebrations. An ideal baby gift to develop early learning, the simple pictures and sentences promote language skills, and the small, padded format is perfect for babies to hold. Babies and toddlers will enjoy turning the pages by themselves, which helps to foster early reading development as well as fine motor skills. Learn all about the amazing new year holiday with your little one! Baby’s First Chinese New Year perfectly captures the joy of this special celebration and is an ideal preschool learning introduction to the traditions of the festival.
Bringing In the New Year
By Grace Lin
34 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Paperback
ISBN 9780375866050 | Knopf BFYR
This exuberant story follows a Chinese American family as they prepare for the Lunar New Year. Each member of the family lends a hand as they sweep out the dust of the old year, hang decorations, and make dumplings. Then it’s time to put on new clothes and celebrate with family and friends. There will be fireworks and lion dancers, shining lanterns, and a great, long dragon parade to help bring in the Lunar New Year. And the dragon parade in our book is extra long – on a surprise fold-out page at the end of the story. Grace Lin’s artwork is a bright and gloriously patterned celebration in itself! And her story is tailor-made for reading aloud.
Chinese New Year: A Mr. Men Little Miss Book
By Adam Hargreaves
32 Pages | Ages 3-5 | Paperback
ISBN 9780593222249 | Grosset & Dunlap
The Mr. Men and Little Misses are celebrating Chinese New Year! Little Miss Neat is having a Chinese New Year party with traditional decorations, a New Year’s Eve feast, and the next day there will even be a dragon dance. What could possibly go wrong?!
Chinese New Year Colors
By Richard Lo
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780823443710 | Holiday House
This bilingual color concept book celebrates a rainbow of traditional objects seen during the Chinese New Year. Hóng is the color of explosive firecrackers! Jīn is the hue of lucky coins. Zŏng is the shade of sweet peanut puffs. Welcome to the festivities of the Chinese New Year, where symbolic gifts, foods, and objects come together in a celebration of beautiful colors. This vibrant, simple, and highly graphic bilingual book is the perfect introduction to Chinese and English words for colors as it honors one of the biggest holidays around the world. Includes informative back matter.
Maisy’s Chinese New Year
By Lucy Cousins
32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536215649 | Candlewick
Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, and Maisy’s friend Tiger is coming home for the occasion. Hooray! Tiger has brought some beautiful gifts, some with a special symbol that means good luck. Maisy has asked all her friends to her house to celebrate with a delicious feast, and Penguin and Ostrich are handing out lucky red packets with money inside. Now it’s time for Tiger to tell the story of Chinese New Year, while everyone stays up late for fireworks. But the best is to come on New Year’s Day, when Maisy and all her friends take part in a dragon dance! Vivid with red and gold, this First Experiences book – featuring a simple visual glossary of common Chinese New Year’s objects – will be a favorite of little ones new to the tradition as well; as those for whom it’s a beloved event.
Stories to share:
Ten Little Dumplings
By Larissa Fan
Illustrated by Cindy Wume
48 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735266193 | Puffin Canada
In the city of Tainan, there lives a very special family – special because they have ten sons who do everything together. Their parents call them their ten little dumplings, as both sons and dumplings are auspicious. But if you look closely, you’ll see that someone else is there, listening, studying, learning and discovering her own talent – a sister. As this little girl grows up in the shadow of her brothers, her determination and persistence help her to create her own path in the world . . . and becomes the wisdom she passes on to her own daughter, her own little dumpling. Based on a short film made by the author, inspired by her father’s family in Taiwan, Ten Little Dumplings looks at some unhappy truths about the place of girls in our world in an accessible, inspiring and hopeful way.