Customer Reviews

Ten Mice for Tet!

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this book is simple but filled with information. one mouse plans a party, two mice go to market, 3 mice paint and polish, 4 mice prepare a feast, 5 mice learn their fortunes, 6 mice open presents...etc. The last two pages of the book give further information on each activity - what it is and why it is an important tradition. I like it because most books do not focus on the vietnamese tradition of Chinese New Year. Our family is of Vietnamese heritage, so this book is best for us.

What a unique book! A must for every school library, the illustrations are gorgeous. Very helpful for projects on Asian cultures or Viet Nam.

This is a great book for preschoolers to teach about some of the activities related to the Vietnamese New Year and its celebration. The embroidered illustrations are quite intricate. I highly recommend this simple, yet informative book.

This book is absolutely beautiful and is full of information on how the Vietnamese celebrate the New Year or Tet Ngyen Dan pronounced Tet Nyen Don which is the 1st day of the new year in Vietnam. It means Feast of the First Day. To the Vietnamese this holiday is as big as Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter all rolled into one! It takes places over 4 days during the last days of January and the beginning of February. It is similar to Chinese New Year in the planning, reuniting of family, Kitchen God, the 12 years named after animals, cleaning homes, red envelopes, dragon dances and fireworks.

What is really special about this book is that the pictures that tell the story of this book aren't actually illustrated but are embroidered! The work is absolutely incredible. And this is what the dust cover says about the author and embroidered.

American Cynthia Weill discovered the embroideries created in the village Quat Dong while she ran the education department of an international relief organization in Hanoi, Vietnam. She thought the embroideries would make beautiful illustrations for a book, so she contacted an author friend, Pegi Deitz Shea, who has written about Aoutheast Asia since her visit there in 1989. Together they came up with the idea for Ten Mice for Tet.

To create the illustrations, award-winning children's book illustrator To Ngoc Trang (pronounced Toe Knock Chang) drew the pictures to be embroidered. Then the embroiderer Pham Viet Dinh (pronounced Pam Tight Deen)laid the pictures over a piece of cloth and stuck pins through the picture's outline. He sprinkled blue powder over the pinholes, which left the outline on the cloth when the picture was lifted. He then embroidered the cloth with cotton thread. A special camera photographed the embroideries so that the book can be printed.

An incredible book on New Year's celebrations for multi-cultural programs, for families with children adopted from Vietnam. This book would be terrific for the year of the rat and is also a counting book from 1 - 10.

We really like this book because it has a section in the back for "older" readers. We also enjoyed the front part for "children"

Very nice stories. My son was born in Vietnam so I bought a bunch of books with a Vietnam theme for his library. These stories are great, regardless if your child is from Vietnam or not, or adopted or not.

Great book for little ones about the Vietnamese New Year. The embroidered illustrations are phenomenal.

My 2 yo loves this book, on the 1 Mouse plans a party page we talk about all the people she will invite to our party and by the end she cheers Happy New Year (in Vietnamese) with me. She was enchanted by Lunar New Year this year, and this book has been a wonderful way to help keep it alive for her. We are not Vietnamese and we love this book.