Chinese New Year books

Years ago when we last studied China I did my usual thing of grabbing as many books as I could, but as we read the books I discovered I had a large stack that fit a sub-category of China books. So I separated out those from my geography lesson and decide to make a Chinese New Year booklist so when I talk with friends who want some books to read I can say, here these are the books I love.

It probably does not surprise you many of my blog posts come about as I answer questions.

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Chinese New Year booklist: celebrating

As I look over my booklist, the books fall into two categories: variations on how the Chinese Zodiac was created and stories set while celebrating Chinese New Year.

This first set is going to be that, some of these are very clearly adaptations of other popular stories, and I don’t mean like Cinderella stories around the world. I mean copy and paste the steps of a story and substitute with a Chinese sounding name.

It’s still a fun story, and the illustrations are still fun, but it’s more or less the same thing.

But at the same time, these are all very clearly fairy tale type of stories, they all have some magical elements to them as people celebrate the new year.

• Runaway Wok– a fun take on some popular fairy tale tropes, a magic wok helps a poor family celebrate the New Year. The repetitive storytelling is great for helping kids learn story structure.
• Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas– Take Goldilocks and the Three Bears, substitute out the names, and that’s your story. Set in a modern Chinatown, this is slightly different than most of the books I gathered up
• Boy Dumplings-I think this was accidentally classified as a Chinese New Year book, because as I read more it’s actually about a different festival, it’s a trickster tale as the smart boy outwits the ghost who wants to cook him. It’s a good story and good illustrations, but it’s a storyline I don’t personally like that much.
• The Runaway Rice Cake– Told more or less like The Gingerbread Boy, a rice cake comes to life and the family chases it, and while it is more or less the same story, it has a few fun twists that make it unique.

My one non-fiction Chinese New Year book

I guess technically the next category is also nonfiction, but they’re 398.2 nonfiction, fairy tales. Actually, they might be over in the mythology section, now that I think about it more.

But, I do have one book that is just here is how it is celebrated now, and here is what we do to remember Chinese New Year. Are you ready for it? It’s a super original and creative name that you’ll never guess:

• Chinese New Year– it’s a good bit of information, and if your library doesn’t have this specific book, I’m sure it will have another book that is similar.

Funny story about that tea pot. When I was a baby we lived in Hong Kong. It was only for a year or so, but I did briefly live over there. Growing up my parents always said we’d go back to Hong Kong once my brother and I were old enough to remember it.

As a freshman in high school we went to Hong Kong for Spring Break. While there I bought this itty bitty tea pot, like it basically holds one cup of tea, and these teeny tiny tea cups. I loved those cups.

Then when my kids were little for a field trip we went to the Asian grocery store. While there I saw my tea pot, and not only that I saw a bigger version of my tea pot, and bigger versions of my tea cups.

It made me laugh that something I had thought was so unique was now just a rather cheap purchase on the other side of the world. Now, I have a big version of that tea pot, in the picture, and a little version that pretty much holds no tea. It does provide me with a fun story.

Some more Asian-related lessons

• How is tea made?
• Great Wall of China
• Terracotta Warriors lesson
• Chinese New Year dragon puppet
• Tea Dragon Society Game– okay this one isn’t Asian so much as I associate it with Asia.

Chinese New Year Booklists: How we got the zodiac

These are my favorites, I love stories like this, and I love that each of these is an ever so slightly different version of the tale.

• No Year of the Cat– Poor cat, I loved this version of the tale, and the watercolor illustrations are adorable.
• Cat and Rat– This is very similar to No Year of the Cat, but also has a bit of why cats and rats hate each other. This feels like it is a bit closer to the original tale than the last one.
• What the Rat Told Me– Another variation on this same tale, but rat is much more of a villain in this one. The illustrations remind me of some shadow puppet theaters at times.
• The Rooster’s Antlers– This version focuses on rooster and dragon, and is similar to the Just So Stories on why something happens. In this case, why rooster hates the morning and eats up centipedes.