Thanks to all for your helpful suggestions.
Chinese New Year Book List:
I have read Cat and Rat by Ed Young. The students really love it. Young
provides a description of the qualities of each sign at the end and I spent
some time asking who was born in the year of... and reading the qualities.
Last year, I did not choose that book and was asked over and over if I was
reading it, so I may resurrect it this year.
If you have access to Book Links Magazine, the January/February issue
this year will feature a bibliography of Chinese New Year books, most
of them for primary grades. I wrote it.
Kay Weisman
Grandfather Tang's Tangrams, Yeh Shen (Cinderalla), Lion Dancer, Sam and
the Lucky Money, Cat and Rat. I wish I had my info. at home. EVery year
I make a big deal about the Ch. New Year. I have a dragon I hang up, we
make paper lanterns, we talk about some of the traditions such as orange
and red being lucky colors. I pass out leise (spelling?) which are money
envelopes that I put a chocolate coin in and seal with a sticker of
whatever animal is rep. that year. Two of Everything is one book the
students love. I use a big pot and hide duplicates of certain items
inside then pull them out to show how everything that falls in the pot
doubles. I made a giant fortune cookie to hang up and the fortune
read--You will meet the book of your dreams or something similar. I have
passed out fortune cookies to some of the classes. I also wear and
Ch. like robe. It is a lot of fun for me and my students. There are tons
of ideas on the web also. Five Chinese brothers just came to mind.
"Dragon Dance" by Joan Holub. It's a lift-the-flap book. It has the Chinese
animal year wheel in the back and a make-your-own dragon puppet activity.
I used The Runaway Rice Cake by Compestine with first graders last year and
it worked very well.
I do a Chinese New Year Program every year, I use the book In the Snow, by
Huy Voun Lee, and explain about Chinese writing, I also read This Next New
Year by Janet Wong, and Chinese New Year by Catherine Chambers. The
children love to hear what year they were born in according to the Chinese
calendar and the characteristics they are supposed to have.
Demi. Happy New Year! : Kung-hsi fa-ts'ai! New York : Crown, 1997.
Examines the customs, traditions, foods, and lore associated with the
celebration of Chinese New Year.
Chinn, Karen, 1959-. Sam and the lucky money. 1st ed. New York: Lee &
Low Books, c1995. Sam must decide how to spend the lucky money he's
received for Chinese New Year.
Compestine, Ying Chang. The runaway rice cake. 1st ed. New York : Simon &
Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2001. After chasing the special rice
cake, Nian Gao, that their mother has made to celebrate the Chinese New
Year, three
poor brothers share it with an elderly woman and have their generosity
richly rewarded.
This next new year by Janet Wong - spunky young boy makes plans for "this
next new year" in Janet S. Wong's festive, truly engaging story of the
Chinese Lunar New Year, celebrated annually in late January or early
February. "And all day tomorrow, Lunar New Year's Day, I will not say one
awful thing, none of that can't do/don't
The Rooster's Antlers by Eric Kimmel
Aloha ... we definitely celebrate Chinese New Year's here in Hawaii ... some
of my favorites to use:
Twelve Years, Twelve Animals by Yoshiko Samuel (1972 ... so possibly out of
print, but a great easy one for the little folks)
The Rat, The Ox, and the Zodiac by Dorothy Van Woerkom (1976 ... but a great
read aloud for all ages)
The Chinese New Year by Cheng Hou-tien (1976 again .. illustrated with
scissor cuts!)
Happy New Year by Demi (1997 ... so the newest of the lot here, and with
Demi's fabulous illus and lots of information)
The handbook of Chinese Horoscopes by Theodora Lau (4th edition, 2000) the
BEST of the chinese horoscope books ... find out all about your animal year.
394.2 BRO
Brown, Tricia. Chinese New Year. 1st ed. New York : H. Holt,
c1987. Text and photographs depict the celebration of
Chinese New Year by Chinese Americans living in San
Francisco's Chinatown.
394.2 WAT
Waters, Kate. Lion dancer : Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year. New
York : Scholastic, c1990. Describes six-year-old Ernie
Wan's preparations, at home and in school, for the Chinese
New Year celebrations.
394.261 HOY
Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane. Celebrating Chinese New Year. New York :
Holiday House, c1998. Depicts a San Francisco boy and his
family preparing for and enjoying their celebration of the
Chinese New Year, their most important holiday.
394.261 MOY
Moyse, Sarah. Chinese New Year. Brookfield, Conn. : Millbrook
Press, c1997. Relates the history of this festival and some
of the preparations that are involved in the fifteen-day
celebration.
E TRO
Trottier, Maxine. The tiny kite of Eddie Wing. 1st American ed.
New York : Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 1996. Too poor to
buy a real kite, Eddie flies an imaginary one that catches
the attention of Old Chan, the wealthy patron of the kite
festival.
The Dragon Prince
Donna Baker
Librarian
Clark Blvd PS
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
dana_7@sympatico.ca
To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new
friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one.
- Anonymous, Chinese saying
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