Chinese New Year Colors by Rich Lo. PICTURE
BOOK. Holiday House, 2019. $19. 9780823443710
BUYING ADVISORY: PRE-K EL (K-3) – ESSENTIAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
This basic-concept book has an appealing elegance that is appealing to both your youngest readers and the adults in their lives.
The left side of each spread has the name of the featured color, in English
with text in that color on the top, and in Chinese on the bottom, both as a character and its
pinyin translation, in white text over a background of the color. The right
side of each spread shows a full-bleed watercolor image of an object related to
the Chinese New Year printed mostly in the featured color. The fourteen featured colors are the eight colors of a small Crayola crayon box, plus cerulean, turquoise, gold, maroon, gray and pink. The obvious omission is white. The objects include lucky bamboo, a rattle drum, and a lantern, some represented in an obvious color, some taking liberty with the color. The last spread in
the book provides a sentence or two of explanation about each included object.
The pleasing and inviting design
introduces young readers to some Chinese words and objects in an artistic way. It
is an essential purchase for both supporting your school's Chinese language learners, as well as providing a window into an Chinese tradition for your youngest readers.
P.K. Foster, MLS, elementary school teacher-librarian
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