At the Beach [Hardcover]

Huy Voun Lee (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1994

A little boy and his mother go to the beach. There she teaches him how to make Chinese words by drawing pictures in the sand. Young readers can learn ten Chinese characters in this wonderfully innovative picture book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The backdrop is a day by the sea, the set design features impeccably executed cut-paper collages, and the mild drama centers on young Xiao Ming, who is learning to write Chinese. His mother, wisely referring to the various activities around them, helps him draw relevant characters in the sand. Water, sky, person, child, woman--one by one they record the Chinese symbol and talk of how best to remember each. The character for person , for example, looks like "someone walking" and water looks like "a big splash." A graceful marriage of the general (the sweeping scenes of a carefree crowd at the beach) and the specific (the lesson in Chinese), this picture book debut can be enjoyed on several levels. Lee's mellow-hued collages feature a multicultural crowd of beachgoers, while elaborate cut-outs grace the borders, echoing the fluid line of the Chinese characters. It's a remarkably unified effort: everything works together to create a flawless picture book. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-A little boy and his mother's day at the beach is the vehicle for this concept book about Chinese characters. Ten characters are introduced as mother and child write them in the sand; verbal mnemonics are reinforced by pictures of people or nature. For example, the character for "woman" is vividly illustrated by a woman posing for a photo with a baby in her arms. However, "sky" confuses the related characters for "person" and "big" in the text; the illustration of "water" is too abstract and disjointed; and the explanation of "sand" is illustrated with a beach scene that has no relevance to how the character is drawn. The pictures are clever and visually appealing, consisting largely of cut-paper collage with some drawings. Peggy Goldstein's Long Is a Dragon (China, 1990) is a more effective introduction, but is for a slightly older audience. At the Beach is an attractive and clever book, but an inconsistent one.
John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (May 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805027688
• ISBN-13: 978-0805027686
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,005,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a fun book for kids, April 21, 2001

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At the Beach (Paperback)

Lee, a native of Cambodia, creates a children's book that explains some Chinese language characters, characters that look like what they mean. Xiao Ming and his mother go to the beach, where Xiao Ming likes to draw Chinese characters in the sand with a stick. Xiao Ming and the reader learn 10 characters. One character is introduced per double page. They are drawn and explained, and for each character, the illustration matches the character. "Person", for example (ren/wren), looks like a person walking down a beach, right foot leading one's left. "Big", (da/dah), looks like person but with an additional horizontal line, or a person on his back with outstretched arms and legs (and thus the illustration of a person lying in the sand). The word for "sky" follows later. It adds another horizontal line to person and big, as if something is sheltering the person. Seven other words are learned ending with "Good" (hao/how), which looks remarkably like a mother holding her child at the beach. Mandarin pronunciations are used.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a gorgeous book, January 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: At the Beach (Paperback)

my daughter from China and I love all the books written by this author. This is the best one and we share it with anyone who visits us at the beach. We practice making Chinese symbols in the sand ourselves.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book for children curious about Chinese writing, July 10, 2001

By 

Elizabeth Yu - See all my reviews

This review is from: At the Beach (Paperback)

By drawing pictures in the sand a mother teachers her young son how to write Chinese characters. This is a marvelous idea, reminding us how thousands of years ago Chinese people took sticks and scratched pictures in the mud, thus inventing the very first Chinese characters. In this book we learn how to draw the characters for the words "person," "big," "small,""sky,""water," "mountain," "sand," "woman," "child" and "good." Through beautiful cut paper illustrations we can easily see the similarities between characters and real life objects. Huy Voun Lee is the talented writer and illustrator of two other books in this series - "In the Park" and "In the Snow." I highly recommend all three.