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Welcome the Year of the Dragon

Families throughout Asia celebrate the beginning of the Lunar New Year, and many families here in the Bay Area celebrate this special time as well. This year, Jan. 23, marks the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, an auspicious year indeed. As I talk about this holiday with children at home and school, I enjoy sharing a variety of books: nonfiction books that help us learn how families celebrate this holiday, fun stories that incorporate some of the traditions and values and stories that reflect the ways modern families celebrate this holiday together. Here are several books that celebrate the beginning of the Lunar New Year, especially in China and for Chinese Americans.

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin (Alfred A. Knopf; 34 pp.; $7.99; ages 2–6) follows a Chinese-American family as it prepares for the Lunar New Year. Everyone in the family helps out: One daughter sweeps the house, while “Ma-Ma makes the get-rich dumplings.” The bright, cheerful illustrations bring you right into the excitement that the young girl feels as she anticipates the coming celebrations. Eventually, the little girl puts on her qi pao dress for the New Year feast. Lin’s bright illustrations capture this family’s happy holiday mood as the members celebrate together. With simple text, this story focuses on a family’s joyful celebrations in a way that young children will certainly enjoy. This is a perfect introduction to the Lunar New Year for preschoolers, while new readers in first and second grade enjoy the simple, readable text and engaging illustrations.

The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale by Ying Chang Compestine and illustrated by Sebastià Serra (Dutton Juvenile; 32 pp.; $16.99; ages 4–8) is a fun folktale about Ming, a young boy who brings home a “magic wok” instead of the rice his family needs. Bay Area author Ying Chang Compestine weaves this story in the tradition of classic folktales, but this is a fresh spin inspired by the Danish folktale “The Talking Pot.” Ming’s family is startled when the wok suddenly sings out, “Mother, make me shine so bright/ and you shall have food to share tonight.” After Mama Zhang polishes the wok bright and clean, it hops down and skips off to the rich man’s wife. Children will delight in the wok’s antics, loving the way that it collects food, toys and money from the stingy rich family to give to Ming’s family. I particularly liked the way Compestine emphasizes the importance of sharing, especially as friends and neighbors gather to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Children will get a sense of how important New Year’s celebrations are in China today in the lovely new book A New Year’s Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong and illustrated by Zhu Cheng Liang (Candlewick; 40 pp.; $15.99; ages 4–8). Maomao and her mother eagerly await her father’s arrival home. “Papa builds big houses in faraway places, / He comes home only once each year, / during Chinese New Year.” Papa’s time with his family is filled with sweet, tender moments: making sticky rice balls with Maomao and hiding a special good luck coin in the rice balls, snuggling in bed together, watching the dragon dance on Main Street. And yet readers will feel the mixture of sadness and joy that this small family wrestles with, as Papa prepares to return to his faraway job after just a few days at home. Zhu’s illustrations bring a lovely tenderness to this story, capturing the family’s emotions. The warm tones reinforce the sense of love that this family has as it celebrates the New Year.

Children love looking at photographs of how real children celebrate holidays. I would certainly recommend two nonfiction books that share real children’s experiences of celebrating Chinese New Years. Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith with photographs by Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House; 32 pp.; $6.95; ages 6–10) follows Ryan, a young Chinese-American boy in San Francisco, as his family prepares for Chinese New Year. The photographs are crisp and clear and show Ryan at home and about town. You’ll see Ryan sweeping his home, getting a haircut and going to the market. The captions are engaging, but the nonfiction text is a little wordy at times. For a simpler book, look for The Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan’s Chinese New Year by Kate Waters and Maeline Slovenz-Low (Scholastic; 32 pp.; $5.99; ages 4 - 8), which shows how 6-year-old Ernie performs his first lion dance. In simple, easy-to-read sentences, Ernie describes the way he and his family prepare for Chinese New Year. While the photographs are not very crisp, this book is still engaging and worth seeking out.

Mary Ann Scheuer is a librarian, teacher and mom of three children. She is the librarian at Emerson Elementary School in Berkeley. She is passionate about helping children and families find books that make them excited about reading. Find more great ideas for reading on her blog, Great Kid Books, http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com.