These Chinese New Year books will help kids learn more about Chinese New Year as well as its customs, traditions, and fun facts.
This month, on the 25th to be exact, many folks will celebrate the Chinese New Year. I’m working on a fun printable and craft round-up for the Chinese New Year {to post shortly}, but I wanted to share some fun books I’ve discovered this week.
Chinese New Year Books
Fill your book basket with a great collection of Chinese New Year books. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore.
If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.
Dragon Dance: A Chinese New Year Lift-the-Flap Book – It’s Chinese New Year and there are so many fun things to do! Shopping at the outdoor market for fresh flowers, eating New Year’s dinner with the whole family, receiving red envelopes from Grandma and Grandpa, and best of all-watching the spectacular Chinese New Year’s parade!
Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan’s Chinese New Year – Ernie Wan is very excited for the Chinese New Year festival. He is dancing the lion dance for the first time!
Lucky New Year – Come celebrate the Chinese New Year with its magical traditions— from giving gifts to watching parades! Children will love to scratch and sniff the sweet oranges, turn the wheel to find their Chinese animal year, lift the flap to find the lucky money, and watch the big dragon pop up to wish them a year filled with wisdom, wealth, and happiness.
Sam and the Lucky Money – Sam must decide how to spend the lucky money he’s received for Chinese New Year
Bringing in the New Year– This exuberant story follows a Chinese American family as they prepare for the Lunar New Year. Each member of the family lends a hand as they sweep out the dust of the old year, hang decorations, and make dumplings. Then it’s time to put on new clothes and celebrate with family and friends.
Lanterns and Firecrackers – A Chinese family prepares for their New Year festivities they decorate the house with flowers, then set off firecrackers to scare away bad spirits and welcome the coming year. Family and friends sit down together for a festive dinner, then go outside to watch the parade of dragon dancers. The festival ends on its final night with a display of colored lanterns.
A New Year’s Reunion – This poignant, vibrantly illustrated tale is sure to resonate with every child who misses relatives when they are away — and shows how a family’s love is strong enough to endure over time and distance.
Chelsea’s Chinese New Year – Chelsea’s family is celebrating Chinese New Year! Chelsea gets to stay up late. She watches fireworks and a parade with a dragon! She and her family have a big feast. Find out the different ways people celebrate this special day!
Happy! Happy Chinese New Year! – In a book that is itself a celebration, Demi explains the rituals and ideas behind the Chinese New Year festival.
Celebrate Chinese New Year – Children have never had so many reasons to learn how Chinese people everywhere ring in the new and ring out the old. As China takes its new place on the global stage, understanding Chinese culture and values becomes ever more essential to our next generation.
Peppa’s Chinese New Year – When Madame Gazelle tells the children it’s time to celebrate Chinese New Year, they couldn’t be more excited. Peppa and her friends hang lanterns, eat fortune cookies, and put on a dragon dance!
Chinese New Year Wishes – In this beautifully illustrated book, children aged 2 to 6 will follow Hong as he and his family prepare for and celebrate the Chinese New Year Festival. They will also enjoy reading the story behind the most important celebration in Chinese culture.
My First Chinese New Year – Chinese New Year is a time of new beginnings. Follow one little girl as she learns how to welcome the coming year and experience all the festivities surrounding it. –
Ruby’s Chinese New Year – In this picture book celebrating Chinese New Year, animals from the Chinese zodiac help a little girl deliver a gift to her grandmother.
Which of these books about the Chinese New Year will you read first?
ROUND OUT YOUR UNIT WITH THESE ACTIVITIES
These adorable Chinese Zodiac Animal clip art printables make the cutest finger puppets! Simply glue your critter onto a small stick or ring of paper to fit over your finger. A super sweet Chinese New Year puppet show with your little ones will make your celebration so special and memorable!
A cute duo of female & male oriental peg dolls to celebrate Chinese New Year! Perfect for early years settings, or even just at home; this lovely pair will provide little ones with ample opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture through play!
Leslie says
Thanks for linking your post up at #LMMLinkup. Our family used to live in China so I enjoy teaching our kids about Chinese culture as much as possible. I’ve also taught beginning Mandarin at our homeschool co-op, and these look like some fun resources. I’m familiar with some of your picks, but others are new to me!
Traci@tracesoffaith says
I love the books that teach our kids about other traditions. It helps them realize it’s a great big world (although a small world after all) and people do things very differently. Thanks for this resource!
Michele Morin says
Fun memories of a long-ago party featuring egg drop soup and homemade fortune cookies after a session of kite flying!
Erin @ Nourishing My Scholar says
We read several of these last week per our children’s request. They were really wonderful. Thanks for sharing so many great book lists! #HipHomeschoolingMoms
Adventures of Adam says
I am ashamed to say I haven’t read any of these books … yet!
Thank you for linking up to #ToddlerFunFriday