Recommended Reads from the Children's Collection @ the Education Library

Nervous about visiting her grandmother in Taipei, Taiwan, a young girl soon adjusts to her unfamiliar surroundings and enjoys the adventure.

Drawing on the myth of the Chinese zodiac, The Animals of Chinese New Yearfollows twelve animals as they speed across a river, competing to represent the imminent new year in a race held by the Jade Emperor, the most powerful Chinese god. Each animal competes in its own unique way. The ox works hard, the tiger is brave, the dog smiles kindly, but who will win?

The adventure loving Dragon, the carefree Horse, and the artistic Goat are just three of the 12 Lucky Animals to be found in the Chinese zodiac, rendered here in bright illustrations. Use the wheel on the back cover to help little readers discover who their lucky animal is and how to pronounce its name in Chinese and English.

In springtime, when wild geese come to nest, there are eggs for counting. But how many goslings will there be? And how many in the whole paddling family, when Papa and Mama join them? Tonal marks used in the book are explained in a final spread, along with a pinyin translation of the Chinese characters.

Changsheng's father brings home a homeless tabby kitten. However, as the kitten grows older, they realize that it's actually a little tiger. Wearing a tiger-head hat made by his mother, Changsheng and the little tiger become best brothers. However, the villagers are scared of the tiger, and Changsheng has no choice but to send the little tiger back to the mountains. The little tiger promises that it will return in times of need. A story about bravery, love, and promise, it also introduces the characteristics of people born in the Year of the Tiger, the origin of the Siberian tiger, and the history of the tiger-head hat.

This is the story of three little pigs whose appetites initially get the better of them. In a shared dream, they met an old man who tells them to deliver sweet rice cakes to him a week before New Year's Eve. The next morning, they see some sweet rice cakes on their kitchen table and completely forget the old man and eat every one. When their mother comes home, she is very angry, and the three little pigs help her make more delicious sweet rice cakes. With only a week left before Chinese New Year's Eve, their mother lays the sweet rice cakes in front of the portrait of the Kitchen God, and the three little pigs realize that the old man in their dreams is actually the Kitchen God!

Jia Jun's Dad worked out of town all year around. Now it's time for him to come home. He took a train, bus, three-wheeled motorcycle, ferry-boat and even walked for many miles. On his trip, as Jia Jun's Dad was rushing to get home, he lost his apple, water, gloves and scarf, but he took very good care of his gift for his son, and he finally makes it home and had a reunion dinner with his family on New Year's Eve.

In this adventure, Kùai, the youngest of the Kang brother, never gets enough to eat. One day Kùai comes up with a plan: he is inspired to use sticks to grab food quickly while it's too hot for Ting and Pan. What will his family think? When the Kang family attends a wedding banquet, Kai brings his chopsticks... to everyone's great surprise! When the whole village finds out, then what will the Emperor think?

A young Chinese girl, her mother, and baby brother, immigrating to the United States in 1922, are detained on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay with thirty other Chinese women while awaiting permission to enter the mainland.

Long ago, in a remote village in China, there lived a kind and generous little boy. One day, the boy made a wondrous discovery: a magic stone that caused his money jar and rice crocks to overflow, both of which he shared with the poor villagers. But strange things began to happen. It no longer rained. The crops died. The rivers dried up. A terrible drought had struck and would not release its grip. The brave young boy, full of dreams of a white, water-spewing Dragon, took his magic stone on a journey--and discovered how to save his village.

Once upon a time, at the foot of the mountains in the Shaanxi Province of China, there were two brothers who lived alone and depended on each other. One day, the elder one dug out a bronze dog while tilling which made the brothers very happy, as they could sell it for money. But unexpectedly, the bronze dog suddenly got bigger and swallowed the elder brother. Having seen this, the younger one rushed to find a hammer, intending to smash the bronze dog to save his brother. In order not to be destroyed, the bronze dog promised to give the young boy three gifts which he wanted most.

Long ago, there lived a kind physician on a mountain in a small Chinese village where he practiced traditional Chinese medicine for all the villagers. On his way home one day, he found an injured sheep, rescued it and brought it home where he nursed the sheep back to life. One evening, after the sheep had been living with the physician for some time, a beast barged into the village, demanding payment of each household in the form of one child. If the villagers refused to hand over their children, the beast would eat everyone! In the blink of an eye, the rescued sheep transforms into a lovely girl, who, with a clever plan, manages to frighten the beast away and keep everyone in the village safe from harm.

The Kang boys don't want their teacher to write embarrassing notes on their hands anymore. If only the teacher could write on something smaller and more private. Can the Kangs concoct a formula for what just may become a very useful school supply?

The Kang brothers need to protect the rice harvest from the birds. Nothing works! Then the boys get an idea: if they made wings, they could fly drive the birds from their rice fields! Using paper, straw, and feathers, the boys experiment with flying many different things, including themselves! What else can they create which will get the job done and be fun to fly at the same time?

Mama Kang needs her sons to help make her famous dumplings to win the annual cooking contest. However, this year the Kang brothers play with the dough, and soon, long strips fly everywhere. With no time left, the family can bring only the strings of boiled flour. Everyone in the village always expects Mama's delicious dish to win. Will this new recipe wow the judges or will the three boys find themselves in hot water?

In Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes, an collection of favorite rhymes are put in pairs--one from China and the next in English--to show how the things that kids love are the same, no matter where in the world they live.

The Mystery of Dragon Bridge is an English-Chinese bilingual children's fantasy story. The tale revolves around the inhabitants of Peach Blossom Village and the mysterious Dragon Bridge-the villagers' only connection to the outside world-which suddenly vanishes in the middle of the night. The astonished villagers appoint a retired soldier, Master Chen, to investigate what has happened to their missing bridge. What he finds will surprise readers as much as it did the perplexed villagers!

A Chinese/English picture dictionary with an illustrated section of words accompanying each letter of the alphabet. Illustrations are identified in both languages.

This bilingual English/Mandarin counting book uses a stroll through Chinatown to introduce readers to the numbers one through ten in Chinese ... and will leave you hungry besides!