Chinese New Year

Children's Literature - Renee Biermann

The cover of this book immediately pulled me in with its rich, red color and bright, exciting dragon. In easy-to-understand text, the book explains the ancient and modern-day Chinese New Year. Readers learn about the preparation leading up to the holiday, including cleaning, cooking, shopping for goods, and spiritual preparation. Customs are explained in detail, such as leaving sweet cakes on a kitchen altar for the Kitchen God. There are plenty of captions, excellent picture-text correlation, and "Did You Know?" features at the bottom of the pages. A partial moon cycle chart shows the phases of the moon throughout the celebration. Many books about Chinese New Year focus only on the red envelopes of money, cleaning, and fireworks. This book goes well beyond that, exploring many little-known facts about the festivities. It would make an excellent addition to classrooms for cultural studies and holiday curricula. This book is part of the "Celebrations in My World" series, which includes titles about Chinese New Year, Christmas, Cinco de Mayo, Constitution Day, Day of the Dead, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Ramadan. Reviewer: Renee Biermann