Written by Vickie Lee, Illustrated by Joey Chou, Published by Henry Holt and Company, 2018. (Picture Book, ages 4-8)
Happy New Year’s Eve! In celebration of a new year, here’s one about the Lunar New Year. What really won me over for this title was the cute illustrations. Those darling black dots for eyes? Gah! I can’t fight it. Anyway here’s to new beginnings and more memories!
BACKGROUND
Ruby just found out that her Nai Nai can’t come to celebrate Chinese New Year, so she decides she’s going to bring the celebration to her…with the help of the Chinese zodiac.
BEST FOR
About a ten minute read aloud for the lunar new year. A playful way to introduce the Chinese zodiac or to celebrate grandparents.
PAIR WITH
The Nian Monster by Andrea Wang
Mimi and Shu I’ll Race You by Christian Trimmer
WHERE TO PURCHASE
If you have an interest in reading Ruby’s Chinese New Year
Shop your local indie bookstore
or here is a link for the book on Amazon
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Thank you for your support and encouragement of this blog. I know this book is older but there are two reasons I picked it: It’s funny and it’s full of family warmth. No matter how many times I have read this title it never fails to fill me up with memories of being a kid surrounded by family, getting in to mischief (nothing TOO big) then clumsily attempting to cover it up. Gary Soto is also just a great author.
I often see requests for books that show how a good deed can multiply and come back to you. Well, this fits the bill along with delectable food scenes, always a plus! Reading this book was like curling up with a good bowl of steaming noodle soup on a cold dark day, which is what I have been doing a lot lately with the rainy winter weather outside!
A traveling exhibit of Yayoi’s work visited Seattle, and we trekked to the Seattle Art Museum as soon it was open in hopes of scoring tickets. Unfortunately when we got there, we found out that people had waited three hours earlier in the morning to get them. That would of required me to take the bus into the city in the very early morning waiting for hours with two kids under five, yeah it wasn’t in the cards for us. Luckily we have this book and I did find my five year old browsing this one under the covers for several nights.
Sometimes I get asked about picture books featuring Vietnamese/Vietnamese Americans and sadly there’s still not a whole lot out there, but at least there’s this one. The premise of the story was based on the author’s own life since her father was a fisherman in Vietnam and continued that work after moving to the US. Kudos to April Chu for the amazing illustrations.
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