1, 2, 3, Go!

A colorful, playful counting book that introduces young children to Chinese characters and action words.

One little girl catches a butterfly. Two small swimmers stomp in puddles. Three young musicians bang their drums. The children in this action-packed counting book jump, dance, and run through the numbers from one to ten. 1, 2, 3, Go! is an exciting introduction to the simplest and most logical of the beautiful picture-words that are used in written Chinese.

Bright colors and bold shapes make the logic behind the picture-words clear. Readers learn that the characters for words such as "push" and "carry," which are actions that involve the use of hands, include the basic character for "hand." And the picture words for actions done with the feet, such as kicking and dancing, all include the basic character for "foot."

In her delicate cut-paper artwork Huy Voun Lee, the author and illustrator of three other highly-acclaimed books on Chinese character writing, has captured all the joy and energy of children at play.

An introduction to Chinese writing describing the construction, meaning, and pronunciation of simple characters used for a variety of words and the numbers one through ten.

A colorful, playful counting book that introduces young children to Chinese characters and action words.

One little girl catches a butterfly. Two small swimmers stomp in puddles. Three young musicians bang their drums. The children in this action-packed counting book jump, dance, and run through the numbers from one to ten. 1, 2, 3, Go! is an exciting introduction to the simplest and most logical of the beautiful picture-words that are used in written Chinese.

Bright colors and bold shapes make the logic behind the picture-words clear. Readers learn that the characters for words such as "push" and "carry," which are actions that involve the use of hands, include the basic character for "hand." And the picture words for actions done with the feet, such as kicking and dancing, all include the basic character for "foot."

In her delicate cut-paper artwork Huy Voun Lee, the author and illustrator of three other highly-acclaimed books on Chinese character writing, has captured all the joy and energy of children at play.

Publishers Weekly

Lee's (At the Beach; In the Snow) word and number primer has all the festive ebullience of a Chinese New Year's dragon. Each cream-colored, double-page spread serves as a backdrop for elegant, boldly-colored cut paper figures, a punchy number-verb combination and the appropriate Chinese characters. For "Three hit," a trio of children in ethnic costumes play drums beneath the graceful boughs of a tree; for "Nine kick," a band of leaping, shouting, red-belted martial arts students punch the air with their legs. Old and new blend subtly and gracefully: in most spreads, the children wear modern-day clothes, but occasionally their stylized expressions and poses (especially in the spread for "Six pull," which shows a group attempting to land a huge fish) evoke a much older and exotic visual tradition. For older children, the introductory pages offer a Mandarin Chinese pronunciation guide and some fascinating etymology: for example, Lee explains that the written Chinese for the words "kick," "run" and "jump" are all based on the basic character for "foot." Youngsters will love finding the hidden words within words and trying their hand at writing them. Ages 4-9. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Huy Voun Lee was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and moved to the United States in 1975. She has written and illustrated three other books on Chinese character writing: At the Beach, In the Snow, and In the Park. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Ms. Lee lives in New York City.