Celebrating Chinese New Year

I liked this book for a few reasons. For one, I liked the organization of the book because it went through the history of Chinese New Year and how families celebrate it. I really liked that while the book included factual information, it was written in third person describing how a little boy and

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his family celebrates the holiday. Each page describes an aspect of Chinese New Year and then goes on to explain how Ryan, the little boy in the story, and his family continue to celebrate with traditions that started long ago. I think having factual information about the holiday and having an actual young character can help students become engaged to read the story. Also, I liked the vocabulary used in the book because it allows students to gain insight about another language. For example, the book opens with, “Gung hay fat choy is a traditional Chinese New Year’s greeting that means may you prosper.” Finally, I liked that there were captions along with real photographs for students who are unfamiliar with the traditions from the holiday can get a visual. The big message of Celebrating Chinese New Year is to show the importance of family and new family and friends in the New Year.

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