Board books in English showing Chinese children and customs

I have been involved in the publication of a series of four board books for young children, “Let’s Play - Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer”. Autumn and Winter are now finished and available in bookstores in Taiwan or online at my website, http://www.littlewonders.com.tw. They come as a book only, or in a ready-to-mail giftbox with giftcard and wrapping paper. These books are a nice way for English-speaking parents to share some Chinese culture with their children.

I wasn’t going to plug them here, but I thought there may some parents looking for this kind of book. The books are based on four traditional scrolls showing Chinese children at play throughout the four seasons. They introduce the Moon Festival, Chinese New Year, and lots of activities you see in Taiwan and China. The text is a simple rhyming couplet for each page, and there is a search activity in the back of each book.

The story of the artist, Huang Yao, and of the scrolls is very interesting. There was an article about him in “Centered on Taipei” (November), and in TVBS Weekly (Chinese). I have an electronic copy of these if anyone would like to read them.

Thanks so much for making these books. They are terrific! :notworthy: My 13 month-old daughter loves them. Today, while on the MRT, they were the only things that kept her happy :smiley: If she is happy, then I am happy.

Please continue to make these. I would love to find 3rd grade English stories that are centered on Chinese people, famous or not for my kids. This is really important

Thanks for the nice feedback! I was wondering if anyone has actually seen them in bookstores, as my agent was supposed to have put them instore but when I called ESLITE etc, they had no record of them! (We definitely have them available online.)

The artist that painted those scrolls also did a lot of work with Chinese idioms, making the idioms into paintings with a cartoon feel. We are considering turning these into forms that could be used to explain Chinese characters and art to young children (elementary school age), again in English, and in a story format. There would be some kind of coloring activities too. Would anyone here be interested in that kind of book series for their children?

Me me me! For the kids and myself.

China post will have a review of the books in tomorrow’s paper. That’s Friday Jan 27.

Try Lensey Namioka’s books about the Yangs for a start: Yang the Fourth and His Terrible Ear, Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family, and Yang the Second and Her Secret Admirer. They’re stories about a Chinese-American family adapting to their new home. They’re perfect for reading aloud to younger kids. Especially Yang the Third and Yang the Fourth. They can be used a springboard for talking about families and parents’ expectations, about be truthful, about siblings…you could do advice columns for the characters in the stories or write a next chapter for the stories when you finish reading them…

The first novel study I did with my 5th graders last year was on reading Yang the Fourth. They really liked the story. PageOne had all three books when I was doing the novel study. I think I remember seeing at least Yang the Second the last time I went there.