Customer Reviews

Chinese New Year's Dragon (Prepack of 6)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book contained very good general information for kids about Chinese New Year; however, it was written in a very choppy style and the ideas also did not flow from one to the next. Within the general information about the young girl's preparation and celebration was a brief one to two page story about flying on a dragon and seeing Chinese New Year in ancient times. This story was too short and really didn't say anything about how the celebrations might have differed; however, connecting current celebrations to ancient times was a nice idea. ...

This is Chinese New Year as I know it. This book is 15 years old, so I was prepared to find it dated in both art and flow. Instead I found myself utterly drawn in, instantly comfortable with the way the people and their home and environments were rendered. Clothing and hair styles, home furnishings, food drawings--everything is spot on, plus, there's this education flavor to the drawings that makes me nostalgic for . . . my old Saturday morning Chinese school books? The text works great for me, too. The device of sharing so much information about usual Chinese New Year traditions via the opener "Just like any other year . . ." on every page, while we wait to hear what was different about THIS year, really drew me in.

The moment of dragon-riding fantasy is breathtaking.

So why am I giving this only 4 stars instead of 5? Well, it's crazy, but as much as I love this book and am getting it for myself, I'm still not sure this would be the first Chinese New Year book I'd give my FRIENDS' kids, these days, and that's my test for what gets 5 stars. I'm almost suspicious this book is TOO perfect for me, and that my friends' kids (the ones being born now) wouldn't relate the same way.

I could be wrong. I'm going to show it around and see what others think. I could just be in denial my friends and I have become our parents.

This book is wonderful.

She took it to bed to read to herself the other night. If you were doing Ch. New Year with a KG - 5th class, you could use the book, but only read selected paragraphs All the important bits of the celebration are there.