I love this whole series and was excited to find this addition! The only thing I'd recommend would be to add phonetic pronunciations for the Chinese* words for those of us who don't know how to read them because I feel like a doofus reading this to my kid but I keep forgetting to look them up, and it's in her room and I can't sneak it out after bedtime when I DO remember. *I have no idea if they are Mandarin or Cantonese :/

I love this whole series and was excited to find this addition! The only thing I'd recommend would be to add phonetic pronunciations for the Chinese* words for those of us who don't know how to read them because I feel like a doofus reading this to my kid but I keep forgetting to look them up, and it's in her room and I can't sneak it out after bedtime when I DO remember.

*I have no idea if they are Mandarin or Cantonese :/

I really can't imagine how this book could be improved. I love the illustrations which are delightfully cheery in the best tradition of children's literature, and authentic to both the culture and the time (I was amused by all the phones taking pictures of the festivities!). Many familiar Chinese customs surrounding the New Year are introduced and a brief explanation of their origin is given without implying that people still believe in the ancient stories: most don't even know them, and there were some that were new to me. It's a great way to introduce the Lunar New Year to children of any background. For our Chinese-Canadian family it was perfect. I'm going to have to get a second copy so we don't have to keep loaning it back and forth. ( )