Xiao Zhu Bu Hui Fei (小猪不会飞 ISBN: 9867742362). This book is a gem that I found in the Books and Me library. Calvin liked it a lot a year ago, and I recently re-loaned it to read to the kids, and Jason started loving it. The original English version, “Pigs Can’t Fly”, is no longer in print, and the author/illustrator Ben Cort became more well-known for illustrating “Dinosaur love Underpants”. Fortunately, the Chinese version is still being sold in Taiwan, and I was lucky enough to be able to buy one via my mom. There are no significant moral lessons in this story – it is simply a hilarious tale about a pig who wants to be everything else but a pig. For example, Calvin and Jason love the part in which the little pig ties a long hose to his nose and big leaves to his ears, and stand in front of the much-taller kangaroo saying “Hello there my friend – I’m a big elephant, and I’m so glad I have a long nose from which I can shoot water.” The kangaroo laughs and tells him he’s only a pig, and before the angry pig can argue, he sneezes and shoots snot (…depicted more elegantly as a cloud…) out of his long hose. A number of these mis-adventures end with the pig falling from a tree a pile of mud while trying to be a bird, and while rolling in this mud pile, he has found that being in pig is, afterall, lots of fun and joy.
Wo Men Jia de Chang Ban Deng (我们家的长板凳 ISBN: 9577514472). Here is a book that captures so much the Chinese (more specifically, the rural Taiwanese) culture, such that I initially suspected my boys wouldn’t like it that much because they just wouldn’t get it. I was pleasantly surprised that they really enjoy reading this book, and it is now one of the few books which both boys agree to read together. The book centers on “the long wooden stool in our house”, an object foreign even to myself, who grew up in Taipei. Each page describes a use of this stool – either as “grandpa (A-Gong)’s naptime bed”, “our dragon boat”, “our seats during a theater show in front of the temple (miao-kou)”, or “a must-have at new year’s eve dinner (nian ye fan).” The corresponding pictures are humorous and endearing. My favorite is a center-fold drawing of a Taiwanese temple on one side, with “The Monkey King” being acted out on stage next to it, and all these families with children at their various activities filling the rest of the pages. Each family has brought a long wooden stool to sit on, and this page really illustrates the meaning of why such a banal object can encompass a huge sense of cultural and familial ties. Calvin once pointed to this picture and asked me where this was. When I said “Taiwan”, he said he really wanted to go there next time. However, he reminded me that we would first need to buy a “long wooden stool”.
My mom recently mailed me two books from Taiwan which she found on sale at a bookstore. These are Da Xiang Ye Ye de Mao Zi (大象爷爷的帽子 ISBN: 9789862430941) and Sheng Ri Li Wu (生日礼物 ISBN: 9789862430934). I won't go into the details about these books - let's just say they both have simple and solid plots involving cutely-drawn animals, and are good for ages ~2-5. They also come with CD's of the stories read. For those of you looking for big books with large pictures and large prints, these satisfy those criteria. I also checked out the publisher's website: http://www,168books.com.tw and found that they sell a lot of books and other children's educational items online. The descriptions of shipment details sound promising that one may be able to order from out of Taiwan. I will personally check with them and post the answers on this page. Meanwhile, if you read Chinese and like to browse through books, their website has quite a selection.
A Book of Songs
Tong Yao La La La (童谣啦啦啦）ISBN: 9864186299 I am almost ashamed that I had not recommended this book until now. Although we have tried several books focused on songs and lyrics, this one is by far our favorite. Both kids have grown up with it and have learned the 18 children's songs in it.
Now, I do believe a parent's choice of songs to sing to her kids is very personal and is dependent on her own background. A song you enjoyed in your childhood is likely to become enjoyable again when you share it with kids, even if you intentionally turned away from it over many years of adulthood. I happened to grow up in Taiwan with a Japanese grandmother, so the songs in this particular book are perfect because they are either traditional children's songs throughout the last 40+ years in Taiwan (and possibly other Chinese-speaking countries) like Liang Zhi Lao Hu, or songs translated to Chinese from traditional Japanese children's songs. You will very likely prefer a different set of songs, and thus a different book. I would thus like to focus on some features of this book that I especially like.
- A CD of all the songs is included. Each song is sung once in its original melody, spoken once (with background accompaniment), and sung again the third time. The recordings are clear, and the kids really enjoy this CD.
- The book contains 18 short songs - we can easily go through the entire book in <5 minutes, singing every song at least once
- Each turn of the page contains one song with lyrics in large print, and a very cute and clear picture relevant to that song
- The end of the book has a few pages for the parents, suggesting gestures or games to go along with each song. I haven't followed these, but have developed my own set of gestures to go with every song, and it is so much fun watching the kids go through them with me together
- The songs cover enough of what I consider the "classics" from my childhood, but avoids the patriotic or military ones
The publisher is http://www.acmebooks.com.tw/ - they seem to have an online ordering process, and if you can figure out how to get them shipped to the U.S. from Taiwan, I would love to know!
Oh, and here are the songs:
- Ding Zi, Xiao Mao, Gou (钉子,小猫,狗)
- Ba Luo Bo (拔萝卜)
- Shuo Ha Luo (说哈罗)
- Tou Er Jian Bang Xi Jiao Zhi (头儿肩膀膝脚趾)
- Cai Quan Ge (猜拳歌)
- Huo Che Kuai Fei (火车快飞)
- Zao Fei Ji (造飞机)
- Liang Zhi Lao Hu (两只老虎)
- Da Xiang (大象)
- Ha Ba Gou (哈巴狗)
- Mu Ya Dai Xiao Ya (母鸭带小鸭)
- Yu Er Yu Er Shui Zhong You (鱼儿于儿水中游)
- Hu Die (蝴蝶)
- Wai Po Qiao (外婆桥)
- Mei Mei Bei Zhe Yang Wa Wa (妹妹背着洋娃娃)
- Xiao Xing Xing (小星星)
- Ma Ma De Yan Jing (妈妈的眼睛)
- Xia Yu (下雨)
Now, I do believe a parent's choice of songs to sing to her kids is very personal and is dependent on her own background. A song you enjoyed in your childhood is likely to become enjoyable again when you share it with kids, even if you intentionally turned away from it over many years of adulthood. I happened to grow up in Taiwan with a Japanese grandmother, so the songs in this particular book are perfect because they are either traditional children's songs throughout the last 40+ years in Taiwan (and possibly other Chinese-speaking countries) like Liang Zhi Lao Hu, or songs translated to Chinese from traditional Japanese children's songs. You will very likely prefer a different set of songs, and thus a different book. I would thus like to focus on some features of this book that I especially like.
- A CD of all the songs is included. Each song is sung once in its original melody, spoken once (with background accompaniment), and sung again the third time. The recordings are clear, and the kids really enjoy this CD.
- The book contains 18 short songs - we can easily go through the entire book in <5 minutes, singing every song at least once
- Each turn of the page contains one song with lyrics in large print, and a very cute and clear picture relevant to that song
- The end of the book has a few pages for the parents, suggesting gestures or games to go along with each song. I haven't followed these, but have developed my own set of gestures to go with every song, and it is so much fun watching the kids go through them with me together
- The songs cover enough of what I consider the "classics" from my childhood, but avoids the patriotic or military ones
The publisher is http://www.acmebooks.com.tw/ - they seem to have an online ordering process, and if you can figure out how to get them shipped to the U.S. from Taiwan, I would love to know!
Oh, and here are the songs:
- Ding Zi, Xiao Mao, Gou (钉子,小猫,狗)
- Ba Luo Bo (拔萝卜)
- Shuo Ha Luo (说哈罗)
- Tou Er Jian Bang Xi Jiao Zhi (头儿肩膀膝脚趾)
- Cai Quan Ge (猜拳歌)
- Huo Che Kuai Fei (火车快飞)
- Zao Fei Ji (造飞机)
- Liang Zhi Lao Hu (两只老虎)
- Da Xiang (大象)
- Ha Ba Gou (哈巴狗)
- Mu Ya Dai Xiao Ya (母鸭带小鸭)
- Yu Er Yu Er Shui Zhong You (鱼儿于儿水中游)
- Hu Die (蝴蝶)
- Wai Po Qiao (外婆桥)
- Mei Mei Bei Zhe Yang Wa Wa (妹妹背着洋娃娃)
- Xiao Xing Xing (小星星)
- Ma Ma De Yan Jing (妈妈的眼睛)
- Xia Yu (下雨)
Books Translated from English
The majority of books I have reviewed so far have been written originally in Chinese, or translated from a language other than English (several are originally Japanese). I'm certainly not a purist - if you can find your child's favorite book from school in Chinese, that's great. Below are some classics that I have found, as well as ones I have been disappointed not to have found yet. Perhaps you can help! In this section, I will skip summaries of the plots, and focus on the translations and/or the sources.
Dr. Seuss' books - When I first started looking for Chinese children's books, I was surprised that most of the Dr. Seuss' books have been translated into Chinese, and are available both at the San Mateo County libraries and at Books and Me. These are bilingual versions, and upon closer inspection, written with the purpose to teach English to people in China or Taiwan. A couple of books do a fair job attempting to keep the rhyme while still having the story make sense, such as Cat in a Hat. Most of them sound awful in Chinese, and do not make sense at all. I tried a few, but have given up.
Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel - I was very happy recently to have found in the Millbrae library a couple of these classic Frog and Toad Are Friends books in the Chinese children's section. They were also published mostly for the English learners, and contain CDs of Mr. Lobel reading these stories in English. The pages with the pictures are all in Chinese, and the original English version is at the end. The translator did a wonderful job - these stories read smoothly, and preserve the humor and warmth of the original tales. The San Mateo libraries only have two of the four books in this series, and I was surprised to find that Books and Me does not carry them. But if your child's also into these books, like Calvin is, give the Chinese version a try!
Olivia series by Ian Falconer - yes, everybody knows and loves Olivia the pig, including the Chinese. The original Olivia book is available through the San Mateo County libraries; both the original one and Olivia Saves the Circus are available at Books and Me. These are all written in Chinese, for the Chinese-speaking kids to enjoy. Calvin actually got a dose of the Chinese Olivia (Ao Li Wei) before he realized she also existed in English - and loved her every bit as much as an American kid would.
The Magic School Bus by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen - I got the Chinese version (the one about electricity) from the Millbrae library recently, and Calvin took a look and told me they had these books at school. However, the school teachers apparently never read them to the kids, so Calvin was very happy to hear me read the Chinese version. Through this version, I learned many technical Chinese terms about electricity myself, and of course I will forget them in a week while Calvin will remember them for the next year. Even though Calvin's interest, coupled with my desire to improve my own Chinese, drove me to lend a couple more Magic School Bus books (from Books and Me - the San Mateo libraries only have the one about electricity), these are still impossible to read word-for-word. The translation is actually pretty awful, even in the "easy" sections describing only the plot and not the scientific details. Many colloquial American terms or expressions really should not be directly translated, but they are in these books, and they sound forced. I would have to do my homework, read the books myself to figure out which main points I want to talk about on each page, and only focus on those when I read to Calvin. Despite all my complaints, how can I resist getting him more of these books when he shouted in glee a couple of days ago: "Xie Xie Ma Ma! You know I love these Magic School Bus books! Let's read them now!!"
What I would like to find in Chinese, but have not:
- Berenstein Bears - I know the VCDs exist, and so do the books. But where can we get them from?
- Oliver Pig and Amanda Pig series by Jean Van Leeuwen
- Caillou - OK, so I know they're not so politically correct, and the two Chinese girls who are Caillou's friends are both stereotypically Chinese-looking, and one of them even wears Qing-Dynasty clothes every day to school. But should that stop people from translating these shows and books?
What I'm sure you already know:
Thomas, Dora, and Diego exist in every language possible, including Chinese. In Taiwan (and probably also in China), Dora and Diego speak mostly in Chinese, with a few English words here and there. :-)
Dr. Seuss' books - When I first started looking for Chinese children's books, I was surprised that most of the Dr. Seuss' books have been translated into Chinese, and are available both at the San Mateo County libraries and at Books and Me. These are bilingual versions, and upon closer inspection, written with the purpose to teach English to people in China or Taiwan. A couple of books do a fair job attempting to keep the rhyme while still having the story make sense, such as Cat in a Hat. Most of them sound awful in Chinese, and do not make sense at all. I tried a few, but have given up.
Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel - I was very happy recently to have found in the Millbrae library a couple of these classic Frog and Toad Are Friends books in the Chinese children's section. They were also published mostly for the English learners, and contain CDs of Mr. Lobel reading these stories in English. The pages with the pictures are all in Chinese, and the original English version is at the end. The translator did a wonderful job - these stories read smoothly, and preserve the humor and warmth of the original tales. The San Mateo libraries only have two of the four books in this series, and I was surprised to find that Books and Me does not carry them. But if your child's also into these books, like Calvin is, give the Chinese version a try!
Olivia series by Ian Falconer - yes, everybody knows and loves Olivia the pig, including the Chinese. The original Olivia book is available through the San Mateo County libraries; both the original one and Olivia Saves the Circus are available at Books and Me. These are all written in Chinese, for the Chinese-speaking kids to enjoy. Calvin actually got a dose of the Chinese Olivia (Ao Li Wei) before he realized she also existed in English - and loved her every bit as much as an American kid would.
The Magic School Bus by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen - I got the Chinese version (the one about electricity) from the Millbrae library recently, and Calvin took a look and told me they had these books at school. However, the school teachers apparently never read them to the kids, so Calvin was very happy to hear me read the Chinese version. Through this version, I learned many technical Chinese terms about electricity myself, and of course I will forget them in a week while Calvin will remember them for the next year. Even though Calvin's interest, coupled with my desire to improve my own Chinese, drove me to lend a couple more Magic School Bus books (from Books and Me - the San Mateo libraries only have the one about electricity), these are still impossible to read word-for-word. The translation is actually pretty awful, even in the "easy" sections describing only the plot and not the scientific details. Many colloquial American terms or expressions really should not be directly translated, but they are in these books, and they sound forced. I would have to do my homework, read the books myself to figure out which main points I want to talk about on each page, and only focus on those when I read to Calvin. Despite all my complaints, how can I resist getting him more of these books when he shouted in glee a couple of days ago: "Xie Xie Ma Ma! You know I love these Magic School Bus books! Let's read them now!!"
What I would like to find in Chinese, but have not:
- Berenstein Bears - I know the VCDs exist, and so do the books. But where can we get them from?
- Oliver Pig and Amanda Pig series by Jean Van Leeuwen
- Caillou - OK, so I know they're not so politically correct, and the two Chinese girls who are Caillou's friends are both stereotypically Chinese-looking, and one of them even wears Qing-Dynasty clothes every day to school. But should that stop people from translating these shows and books?
What I'm sure you already know:
Thomas, Dora, and Diego exist in every language possible, including Chinese. In Taiwan (and probably also in China), Dora and Diego speak mostly in Chinese, with a few English words here and there. :-)
Books with accompanying VCDs
All the books in this section are from the Taiwanese publisher Aichi (愛智圖書, www.aichibooks.com.tw), and I bought them as sets. Each set came with five books, a VCD containing animated versions of the five stories as well as audio-only versions of the stories. This gave me flexibility to play the stories on TV at home, or play them on the CD player in the car.
The wonderful thing about these videos is that the "animation" is really minimal, and uses only illustrations in the books. This means that the TV-watching process is as close to the book-reading process as possible. In other words, these are not animations with fast motions that negatively affect children's overall attention span - if you believe in that stuff. For us, the advantage was that these video and audio versions increased our kids' familiarity, and hence interest, in the stories. They therefore encouraged our kids to pull these books out themselves and read them. Sometimes our kids are so familiar with the occasional background music that, as they go through a certain section of a book, they will start humming the accompanying music.
In a previous section, I already reviewed Shen Mi Xiao Huo Che (神秘小火车). In this section, I will list the sets that I own, give some comments on each set, and pick out a couple of favorite books to go into detail.
1. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Pai Dui (小小故事 派队), ISBN: 9576083176 - This was the first set we owned, back when only Calvin was old enough to appreciate these stories. My mom picked this in a hurry, not knowing anything about the stories. After we opened the box and read the books to Calvin, we knew we would be getting more of these sets.
- Re Hu Hu De San Feng Xin (热呼呼的三封信): about a mail-delivering bird Jiu-Jiu, who realizes that a skunk Ke-Ke in the hospital is not getting better because he doesn't have friends (perfectly chosen animal). Jiu-Jiu sends anonymous mail to Ke-Ke to cheer him up. As expected (by the adult readers), Ke-Ke recovers, finds out Jiu-Jiu had sent the letters, and becomes good friends with the cheerful bird.
- Shen Mi Xiao Huo Che (神秘小火车): reviewed in a previous section with other books about trains.
- Bian Se Long Bu Bian Se (变色龙不变色): a humbling example showing that books I think are odd may be perfectly enjoyed by my kids. An iguana tries not to change colors, because he thought changing colors made his friends ignore him. I don't think the iguana is cute. I think the plot is confusing, and the moral of the story is too buried for little kids. How wrong I am! Jason has completely memorized the book word-for-word, and roams around oftentimes mumbling to himself: "The giraffe thought Iguana was part of the leaf and accidentally ate him. 'Iguana, I don't eat meat!', said the giraffe while coughing."
- A Fu Zhong Tian (阿福种田): an opposite example from the last book, showing that books I think are absolutely fabulous may not make it to the top of the kids' list. Adults who have grown up in Taiwan will enjoy the accurately (and adorably) illustrated Taiwanese country side: the scenery, house decor, nick names, clothing accessories, etc. Just remember that your kids likely don't carry those same memories and sentiments. To them, it's just another story about a farmer whose neighbors end up helping him with the farm work.
- Hai Dai Ke Le Bing (海带可乐饼): with a theme of environmental awareness, this story features a greedy shark and his attempts to become the largest producer of a special seaweed dessert. You can imagine the consequences of a large factory in the midst of the ocean, seaweeds dug out in large quantities, and oil dumped into the ocean... The end is very anti-Hollywood. After the factory closes down because of the lack of seaweed and accidents in the kitchen, the streets once filled with fish are now empty. The last page simply says that little green seaweeds start to grow in this silent ocean, and they slowly sway with the movements of the waves (imagine this written poetically in Chinese... believe me, it is beautiful).
2. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Xing Qiu (小小故事星球), ISBN: 9789576083532 - My life would be different right now without this set. We read these stories every night, and we quote from them throughout our time together. We listen to these stories on the way to and back from school, and we hum the background songs together. Here is a list of them.
- Qiao Ke Li Mao Shu Dian (巧克力猫书店): our favorite. A chocolate-colored, book-loving cat opens a bookstore after his books take up every empty space in his house. In this bookstore, a little fox would sit in a corner reading books all day long, but ended up running away when choco-cat approached him. In the end, the little fox revealed that he loved the books so much but did not have enough money to buy them. Choco-cat smiled and told him that if he was willing to help out once in a while in the store, he would get some books as presents. The final page has Choco-cat and the little fox sitting in front of the store with drinks next to them, and the words simply say, "If you happen to be in Seagull Town and walk by a little red house as you smell the coffee and listen to the wind chime, why don't you come in for a visit." It is just enough to not feel too "cheesy", but still sends a smile to my face every time. The other books in this set are:
- Dang Hei Mao Yu Jian Bai Mao (当黑猫遇见白猫): another cat-based story about love and courage
- Wo De Yie Zi Xiao Shu (我的叶子小书): the kids' least favorite in this set; not a surprise, since each page describes a type of leaves
- Wo Men Dou Shi Yi Shu Jia (我们都是艺术家): a lizard describing how all his family members are artists; the illustrations are abstract, but the kids seem to understand them (more than I do)
- Shu Cai De Hua Zhuang Wu Hui (蔬 菜的化妆舞会): a cinderella story played by different vegetables; my kids have not been as interested in any vegetable-based stories as this one
3. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Sen Lin (小小故事森林), ISBN: 9576082560 - A wonderful set that contains five high-quality stories, with a variety of themes and illustration styles. Jason likes all five stories; Calvin likes them too, but he has heard them so many times (upon Jason's request) that he no longer wants to hear them. These are the stories:
- Jin Niu Kou De Sheng Yin (金纽扣的声音): an imaginative story that teaches kids to treat others well, featuring a cat family and their friendship with a blind mole. This can be enjoyed both by older kids because of the complexity of the plot, and by younger kids because of the distinctive and cute characters.
- Dong Dong De Luo Yie (冬冬的落叶): a simple story about a tree name Dong-Dong whose leaves have all fallen for the first time. I did not guess that Jason would end up loving a story centered around a tree (without facial features) this much! It is winter now, and whenever we walk by fallen leaves, Jason and I would start talking about Dong-Dong.
- Wan Dou Xiong Di (宛豆兄弟): peas in a pod are brothers living in the same room, all with different hobbies. They teach each other, so that all end up enjoying these hobbies (reading, drawing, singing and dancing). Suitable for younger kids.
- Xiao Ci Wei Xue Hua Hua (小刺猬学画画): a hedgehog wants to draw, and learns from his friend that drawing is for each person's enjoyment, not to compete with others. Fitting with the theme is this artist's very childish style of drawing. In fact, we have read several other books of his, and the kids truly enjoy them without caring about the drawing style.
- Liu Lang Xiao Lao Shu De Jia (流浪小老鼠的家): homeless mice find form friendship with each other, and build a house together with things they find in the street.
4. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Zhong Zi (小小故事种子), ISBN: 9576082795 - Calvin and Jason only like two of the stories in this set, and neither of those two can be called one of their favorites. This is perhaps the most "advanced" set, although they are all labeled for ages 3-8. Here I will only list the titles, with minimal descriptions.
- Guo Wang Yu Muo Dou (国王与魔豆): here's a story I find a bit odd, and so do my kids. Calvin is scared by the witches, and by the king's face turning green when he saw an angry face appear in the cappucino calling him a liar. Yes, now you probably agree with me that the story's a bit odd.
- Xiao Bu Ding Ai Tou Ting (小布丁爱偷听): one of the two stories we like. I especially like the cutely drawn frog, Xiao Bu Ding, who finds a conch and starts using that to eavesdrop. Everything ends well - Xiao Bu Ding learns what he shouldn't do, and his friends forgive him.
- Pu Pu De Xin Fang Zi (普普的新房子): a hermit crab's search for a new "house" makes him realize real estate is expensive (something only adults can appreciate), beaches are polluted (ok, a concept children can learn), and creativity saves the day (he makes his own house by decorating an empty can). Our kids also like this one, but don't get too excited about it. Thus, it's actually a book I often choose when I really want them to fall asleep.
- Xiang Nian (想念): a realistic book featuring little mouse Sha-Sha, whose grandfather had just passed away. The story centers around her father's conversations with Sha-Sha to comfort her but still remain realistic. There is no heaven, and no reincarnated mouse. But the concept of reincarnation is touched upon, when daddy points out how the fallen leaves came from the tree, and will now become part of the nourishment for the tree. Perhaps the concepts are too deep - but the real reason my kids don't want to read this book is, they don't want to feel sad.
5. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Hua Yuan (小小故事花园), ISBN: 9576082404 - Our least favorite set. The stories are overall shorter, and the illustrations are not eye-catching to the kids. We almost never read any of these stories, even though they still listen to them in the car. Instead of describing each story, I'll just list what they are.
- Li Wu (礼物)
- Xiao Hou Zi Lu Ba Ba (小猴子鲁巴巴)
- Xiang Jiao A Qi (香蕉阿奇)
- Chao Ren Xiao Ma Yi (超人小蚂蚁)
- Nian Shou Lu La Hui Jia Le (年狩鲁拉回家了)
P.S. As I wrote about these books, I realized that this is the first posting I've written in which I own all the books. The other postings have been a mixture of books I own and books I've borrowed from the library. There is a different feeling, I have to admit. The characters in the books we own have become part of our family. Perhaps some of them are like the shy cats whom you see once in a while. However, we know they're available whenever we're home, and we've internalized the favorite characters so that they're always with us. If we start building this type of relationship with characters in a library book, it's time we look really hard about how to buy that book.
The wonderful thing about these videos is that the "animation" is really minimal, and uses only illustrations in the books. This means that the TV-watching process is as close to the book-reading process as possible. In other words, these are not animations with fast motions that negatively affect children's overall attention span - if you believe in that stuff. For us, the advantage was that these video and audio versions increased our kids' familiarity, and hence interest, in the stories. They therefore encouraged our kids to pull these books out themselves and read them. Sometimes our kids are so familiar with the occasional background music that, as they go through a certain section of a book, they will start humming the accompanying music.
In a previous section, I already reviewed Shen Mi Xiao Huo Che (神秘小火车). In this section, I will list the sets that I own, give some comments on each set, and pick out a couple of favorite books to go into detail.
1. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Pai Dui (小小故事 派队), ISBN: 9576083176 - This was the first set we owned, back when only Calvin was old enough to appreciate these stories. My mom picked this in a hurry, not knowing anything about the stories. After we opened the box and read the books to Calvin, we knew we would be getting more of these sets.
- Re Hu Hu De San Feng Xin (热呼呼的三封信): about a mail-delivering bird Jiu-Jiu, who realizes that a skunk Ke-Ke in the hospital is not getting better because he doesn't have friends (perfectly chosen animal). Jiu-Jiu sends anonymous mail to Ke-Ke to cheer him up. As expected (by the adult readers), Ke-Ke recovers, finds out Jiu-Jiu had sent the letters, and becomes good friends with the cheerful bird.
- Shen Mi Xiao Huo Che (神秘小火车): reviewed in a previous section with other books about trains.
- Bian Se Long Bu Bian Se (变色龙不变色): a humbling example showing that books I think are odd may be perfectly enjoyed by my kids. An iguana tries not to change colors, because he thought changing colors made his friends ignore him. I don't think the iguana is cute. I think the plot is confusing, and the moral of the story is too buried for little kids. How wrong I am! Jason has completely memorized the book word-for-word, and roams around oftentimes mumbling to himself: "The giraffe thought Iguana was part of the leaf and accidentally ate him. 'Iguana, I don't eat meat!', said the giraffe while coughing."
- A Fu Zhong Tian (阿福种田): an opposite example from the last book, showing that books I think are absolutely fabulous may not make it to the top of the kids' list. Adults who have grown up in Taiwan will enjoy the accurately (and adorably) illustrated Taiwanese country side: the scenery, house decor, nick names, clothing accessories, etc. Just remember that your kids likely don't carry those same memories and sentiments. To them, it's just another story about a farmer whose neighbors end up helping him with the farm work.
- Hai Dai Ke Le Bing (海带可乐饼): with a theme of environmental awareness, this story features a greedy shark and his attempts to become the largest producer of a special seaweed dessert. You can imagine the consequences of a large factory in the midst of the ocean, seaweeds dug out in large quantities, and oil dumped into the ocean... The end is very anti-Hollywood. After the factory closes down because of the lack of seaweed and accidents in the kitchen, the streets once filled with fish are now empty. The last page simply says that little green seaweeds start to grow in this silent ocean, and they slowly sway with the movements of the waves (imagine this written poetically in Chinese... believe me, it is beautiful).
2. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Xing Qiu (小小故事星球), ISBN: 9789576083532 - My life would be different right now without this set. We read these stories every night, and we quote from them throughout our time together. We listen to these stories on the way to and back from school, and we hum the background songs together. Here is a list of them.
- Qiao Ke Li Mao Shu Dian (巧克力猫书店): our favorite. A chocolate-colored, book-loving cat opens a bookstore after his books take up every empty space in his house. In this bookstore, a little fox would sit in a corner reading books all day long, but ended up running away when choco-cat approached him. In the end, the little fox revealed that he loved the books so much but did not have enough money to buy them. Choco-cat smiled and told him that if he was willing to help out once in a while in the store, he would get some books as presents. The final page has Choco-cat and the little fox sitting in front of the store with drinks next to them, and the words simply say, "If you happen to be in Seagull Town and walk by a little red house as you smell the coffee and listen to the wind chime, why don't you come in for a visit." It is just enough to not feel too "cheesy", but still sends a smile to my face every time. The other books in this set are:
- Dang Hei Mao Yu Jian Bai Mao (当黑猫遇见白猫): another cat-based story about love and courage
- Wo De Yie Zi Xiao Shu (我的叶子小书): the kids' least favorite in this set; not a surprise, since each page describes a type of leaves
- Wo Men Dou Shi Yi Shu Jia (我们都是艺术家): a lizard describing how all his family members are artists; the illustrations are abstract, but the kids seem to understand them (more than I do)
- Shu Cai De Hua Zhuang Wu Hui (蔬 菜的化妆舞会): a cinderella story played by different vegetables; my kids have not been as interested in any vegetable-based stories as this one
3. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Sen Lin (小小故事森林), ISBN: 9576082560 - A wonderful set that contains five high-quality stories, with a variety of themes and illustration styles. Jason likes all five stories; Calvin likes them too, but he has heard them so many times (upon Jason's request) that he no longer wants to hear them. These are the stories:
- Jin Niu Kou De Sheng Yin (金纽扣的声音): an imaginative story that teaches kids to treat others well, featuring a cat family and their friendship with a blind mole. This can be enjoyed both by older kids because of the complexity of the plot, and by younger kids because of the distinctive and cute characters.
- Dong Dong De Luo Yie (冬冬的落叶): a simple story about a tree name Dong-Dong whose leaves have all fallen for the first time. I did not guess that Jason would end up loving a story centered around a tree (without facial features) this much! It is winter now, and whenever we walk by fallen leaves, Jason and I would start talking about Dong-Dong.
- Wan Dou Xiong Di (宛豆兄弟): peas in a pod are brothers living in the same room, all with different hobbies. They teach each other, so that all end up enjoying these hobbies (reading, drawing, singing and dancing). Suitable for younger kids.
- Xiao Ci Wei Xue Hua Hua (小刺猬学画画): a hedgehog wants to draw, and learns from his friend that drawing is for each person's enjoyment, not to compete with others. Fitting with the theme is this artist's very childish style of drawing. In fact, we have read several other books of his, and the kids truly enjoy them without caring about the drawing style.
- Liu Lang Xiao Lao Shu De Jia (流浪小老鼠的家): homeless mice find form friendship with each other, and build a house together with things they find in the street.
4. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Zhong Zi (小小故事种子), ISBN: 9576082795 - Calvin and Jason only like two of the stories in this set, and neither of those two can be called one of their favorites. This is perhaps the most "advanced" set, although they are all labeled for ages 3-8. Here I will only list the titles, with minimal descriptions.
- Guo Wang Yu Muo Dou (国王与魔豆): here's a story I find a bit odd, and so do my kids. Calvin is scared by the witches, and by the king's face turning green when he saw an angry face appear in the cappucino calling him a liar. Yes, now you probably agree with me that the story's a bit odd.
- Xiao Bu Ding Ai Tou Ting (小布丁爱偷听): one of the two stories we like. I especially like the cutely drawn frog, Xiao Bu Ding, who finds a conch and starts using that to eavesdrop. Everything ends well - Xiao Bu Ding learns what he shouldn't do, and his friends forgive him.
- Pu Pu De Xin Fang Zi (普普的新房子): a hermit crab's search for a new "house" makes him realize real estate is expensive (something only adults can appreciate), beaches are polluted (ok, a concept children can learn), and creativity saves the day (he makes his own house by decorating an empty can). Our kids also like this one, but don't get too excited about it. Thus, it's actually a book I often choose when I really want them to fall asleep.
- Xiang Nian (想念): a realistic book featuring little mouse Sha-Sha, whose grandfather had just passed away. The story centers around her father's conversations with Sha-Sha to comfort her but still remain realistic. There is no heaven, and no reincarnated mouse. But the concept of reincarnation is touched upon, when daddy points out how the fallen leaves came from the tree, and will now become part of the nourishment for the tree. Perhaps the concepts are too deep - but the real reason my kids don't want to read this book is, they don't want to feel sad.
5. Xiao Xiao Gu Shi Hua Yuan (小小故事花园), ISBN: 9576082404 - Our least favorite set. The stories are overall shorter, and the illustrations are not eye-catching to the kids. We almost never read any of these stories, even though they still listen to them in the car. Instead of describing each story, I'll just list what they are.
- Li Wu (礼物)
- Xiao Hou Zi Lu Ba Ba (小猴子鲁巴巴)
- Xiang Jiao A Qi (香蕉阿奇)
- Chao Ren Xiao Ma Yi (超人小蚂蚁)
- Nian Shou Lu La Hui Jia Le (年狩鲁拉回家了)
P.S. As I wrote about these books, I realized that this is the first posting I've written in which I own all the books. The other postings have been a mixture of books I own and books I've borrowed from the library. There is a different feeling, I have to admit. The characters in the books we own have become part of our family. Perhaps some of them are like the shy cats whom you see once in a while. However, we know they're available whenever we're home, and we've internalized the favorite characters so that they're always with us. If we start building this type of relationship with characters in a library book, it's time we look really hard about how to buy that book.
Some more favorites
Zui Hao Chi de Dan Gao (最好吃的蛋糕) ISBN: 9787539420059. Don't read this to your kids if they're hungry (or if you're hungry yourself)! Even the obvious title "The most delicious cake" does not capture all the types of cakes, desserts, donuts, etc. that come alive in the fabulous illustration and charming plot. The forest is having its annual cake competition, and each group of animals works together to create a cake to be judged by the Lion. The Lion (cutely drawn, not scary at all) takes a bite of the rabbits' cake, and immediately announces this as the winner. The other animals start complaining, and their complaints turn into childish bashing of one another's cake. One thing leads to another, and a cake fight eventually takes place. During the commotion, the elephant knocks over the table on which all the cakes were placed. There is a moment of sadness and despair as the animals watch the products of their hard work mangled on the ground. Before my sensitive kids start to worry too much, the cheerful Lion emerges from this mountain of mangled cakes, announcing that he's just had a bite of the best cake ever. So the best cake is one that combines everyone's cake (huh?) and effort (ah ha). The last page shows all the animals building a large cake together. The meticulous details of the illustration are precious. I can stare at this page many times and still find something new. The harmonious and happy animals working together certainly teach kids about teamwork and all that good stuff, but not without some humorous realism (the hippo secretly takes a bite of the cream while the bear stands on him to place chocolate on the cake). This is a book I have enjoyed as much as my kids have.
Wo Xiang Fei (我想飞) ISBN: 9787539420035. As opposed to the last book I described (Zui Hao Chi de Dan Gao), this is a book my boys both love, but I have been partial to it. Don't get me wrong - it's still a great children's book. Perhaps the reason is because I no longer dream of flying whereas I can still dream of a delicious cake. "Wo Xiang Fei" stars an overweight dragon Duo-Te (did he come from the land of the best cake?) who cannot fly. His little mouse friend encourages him to eat less (unsuccessful) and exercise every day (somewhat successful). One day, Duo-Te's anorexic friends get scooped up and trapped by a strong wind. Without thinking much, Duo-Te immediately flew over to save them, and it was at that moment that everyone realized he can fly. Yes, they have a party for him - an obligatory ending to this plot. I'd like to think the boys are getting the main messages including the importance of friendship, the benefits of exercising, the necessity of working to achieve your goal, etc. But I think what they really learn at the end of the day is - whenever something good happens, you have to celebrate with a party and lots of cupcakes.
Xiao Qi E Yao Xue Fei (小企鵝要学飞) ISBN: 9787883073444. Along the lines of flying, this is a book I much prefer over the last one I described (Wo Xiang Fei). Fortunately my boys also love this book; unfortunately we just had to return it to the library. Jason still asks for it though, so I may need to somehow get a hold of a permanent copy. This book also comes with a CD on which the story is read on one track, and some more background on penguins is given on the other track. A little penguin Qi-Qi is frustrated that he can't fly like his friend Pi-Pi (a type of bird... the English for this species escapes me). Pi-Pi first guesses it's because Qi-Qi is too skinny. Qi-Qi says, " I was born like this. Have you ever seen a penguin as skinny as a stick?" (with an illustration of a bizarre-looking stick-like penguin which always makes my boys laugh). Pi-Pi does not give up, and equips Qi-Qi with lots of leaves to bulk up his wings. Qi-Qi jumps, only to fall immediately into the water. Now the scary part happens - a seal sneaks behind Qi-Qi and almost eats him. A couple of well-written sentences describing the stressful chase almost turned Calvin away from this book completely. I had to skip these a few times in the beginning to assure Calvin that Qi-Qi always ends up fine. Now, Qi-Qi realizes he is really good at swimming, and really enjoys it. He no longer feels sorry for himself because he cannot fly. After this illustrated part of the story ends, there are a few pages describing these penguins in more detail than my kids can currently handle. However, they are extremely excited to see the pictures of real baby and adult penguins on these pages. We call them "the real Qi-Qi" or "the real Qi-Qi's mom & dad". We were really lucky to have found this book at the library - I miss it too.
Wo Xiang Fei (我想飞) ISBN: 9787539420035. As opposed to the last book I described (Zui Hao Chi de Dan Gao), this is a book my boys both love, but I have been partial to it. Don't get me wrong - it's still a great children's book. Perhaps the reason is because I no longer dream of flying whereas I can still dream of a delicious cake. "Wo Xiang Fei" stars an overweight dragon Duo-Te (did he come from the land of the best cake?) who cannot fly. His little mouse friend encourages him to eat less (unsuccessful) and exercise every day (somewhat successful). One day, Duo-Te's anorexic friends get scooped up and trapped by a strong wind. Without thinking much, Duo-Te immediately flew over to save them, and it was at that moment that everyone realized he can fly. Yes, they have a party for him - an obligatory ending to this plot. I'd like to think the boys are getting the main messages including the importance of friendship, the benefits of exercising, the necessity of working to achieve your goal, etc. But I think what they really learn at the end of the day is - whenever something good happens, you have to celebrate with a party and lots of cupcakes.
Xiao Qi E Yao Xue Fei (小企鵝要学飞) ISBN: 9787883073444. Along the lines of flying, this is a book I much prefer over the last one I described (Wo Xiang Fei). Fortunately my boys also love this book; unfortunately we just had to return it to the library. Jason still asks for it though, so I may need to somehow get a hold of a permanent copy. This book also comes with a CD on which the story is read on one track, and some more background on penguins is given on the other track. A little penguin Qi-Qi is frustrated that he can't fly like his friend Pi-Pi (a type of bird... the English for this species escapes me). Pi-Pi first guesses it's because Qi-Qi is too skinny. Qi-Qi says, " I was born like this. Have you ever seen a penguin as skinny as a stick?" (with an illustration of a bizarre-looking stick-like penguin which always makes my boys laugh). Pi-Pi does not give up, and equips Qi-Qi with lots of leaves to bulk up his wings. Qi-Qi jumps, only to fall immediately into the water. Now the scary part happens - a seal sneaks behind Qi-Qi and almost eats him. A couple of well-written sentences describing the stressful chase almost turned Calvin away from this book completely. I had to skip these a few times in the beginning to assure Calvin that Qi-Qi always ends up fine. Now, Qi-Qi realizes he is really good at swimming, and really enjoys it. He no longer feels sorry for himself because he cannot fly. After this illustrated part of the story ends, there are a few pages describing these penguins in more detail than my kids can currently handle. However, they are extremely excited to see the pictures of real baby and adult penguins on these pages. We call them "the real Qi-Qi" or "the real Qi-Qi's mom & dad". We were really lucky to have found this book at the library - I miss it too.
Selected Books on Trains
As promised, here are our favorite books on trains. We'd love to hear about yours!
Huo Che Yao Kai Le (火车要开了) ISBN: 9787539420035. This book is great for the train-obsessed toddler who is also in the midst of learning about the different colors. The story is simple: Tom takes his toy train to school, and falls asleep in art class while the teacher is talking about colors. He goes on a colorful journey in his dream on this toy train, and each page is an imaginary land with a color as its theme. When he wakes up, he realizes his friends have drawn all these pictures similar to the places he visited on his adventure. They place the pictures on the floor, and play "choo choo train" pretending they are going to all these places. The story is a bit too simple for my older son Calvin now, but Jason has loved this book and has read it often for more than half a year now. At first, he was a little scared of one of the pages - here Tom's train goes into a tunnel where some fierce black dog-like "monsters" are seen. I was amazed though that the initial fear did not amount to anything, and now he reads through that page with no problems. Jason's favorite is the page with snow, where a snow man sits on the train track with a big hole in his tummy. Jason and I always throw up our hands on that page and yell: "Ai-ya, wo de du du bian cheng shan dong le! (Oh no, my tummy has turned into a tunnel!)"
Da Jia Yi Qi Pu Tie Gui (大家一起铺铁轨) ISBN: 9789862410271. If I could only choose one book to keep for the rest of my life, to capture the spirit of the boys at this precious age, I would seriously consider choosing this book. Calvin picked it out himself when he was three years old and shopping with my mom in a bookstore in Taiwan. It became his favorite book for many months - perhaps close to a year. At some point, it made the switch and became one of Jason's favorite books. It still is. The title means "Everybody builds the train tracks together", and that's pretty much what the book is about. Six adorable kids in overalls and hard hats are building a train track together in the middle of a beautifully drawn natural land. Every page only contains a few words, usually an obstacle, followed by the one-sentence resolution in the next page. For example, one page is "There's a mountain in the front - what do we do?" You turn the page to see these kids with drills and lamps on their hats working together digging a tunnel, and the words just say "Then we just dig a tunnel - ha, the tunnel has been completed!" The most fun part about reading this book is, Calvin automatically assigned a characters to himself. He assigned another one to Jason, which Jason readily accepted. Then they would look at the pictures and talk about what those characters are doing using the first person perspective. They would even start assigning their friends to the other characters - then we really had stories. We can also start talking about their interactions: for example, I might say "Calvin and Jason are carrying a long piece of steel together", or "Calvin is driving the train to the station and look, Jason, you're so excited to see Ge-Ge (big brother) that you're jumping up and down." When Jason gets too old for this book, I'm really going to be sad for a while.
Zhang Zhe Yan Jing De Huo Che Zhan (長著眼睛的火車站) ISBN: 9867375637. This is geared toward the older kid, but the water color paintings of trains present in almost every page are so enticing to the train addicts, even if they're too little to understand most of the words. ...and this is how we started, first with Calvin willing to sit through the long narrative in order to absorb all the illustrations, then with Jason doing the same thing. Now I believe both kids really understand the prose. Yes, I call it "prose" because the story reads like it was written by a fourth grader who has won some award writing an essay about the day when his parents took him and his little brother to see five famous train stations along the coast in Taiwan. The title means "train stations with eyes" and refers to a common architectural feature of these five stations - that they all have these round windows looking like cow's eyes. Like the title itself, the prose contains lots of metaphors. It is tempting to tell myself while reading this story that I'm contributing to their essay writing abilities in the future - but I'm not an expert in child psychology. The same writer and painter also published two other children's books, both about trains. One is "Huo Che Zai Wo Qu Kan Hai" (火车载我去看海) ISBN: 9867375602, and is about a boy's first time riding the train. He rides it on a field trip with his class, and his excitement over every experience is described in first person, again in well written prose. Calvin and Jason both enjoy this book as well, and again the water color paintings on every page is eye-catching. The other one is "Zai Ji Ji Xia Che" (在集集下车) ISBN: 9867375645. This is specifically about the earthquake in 1999 that hit Ji Ji (more commonly known as Chi-Chi), a rural city in central Taiwan, and killed around 2500 people. The story takes the viewpoint of three trains running through the Chi-Chi station, carrying readers from before the earthquake, through a page describing the earthquake, to the successful re-building of Chi-Chi station after the shock. This is a great story for an older child, and teaches many lessons about history, hope, working together. However, my kids are still too young and have not been as interested in this book.
Shen Mi Xiao Huo Che (神秘小火车) ISBN: 9576083176. This is one of a set of five books from a series of Aichi-published books sold only as sets (each with a VCD/CD). I will find a time to review these sets of books in the near future, as we now have (I think) all the sets. For now, I will focus on this book, which stars a little girl Xiao-Xiang who rides on a train herself for the first time. She falls asleep and dreams of the train going through snowy mountains, a tropical island, and the black forest. Of course, many animals appear on the way to make friends. Xiao-Xiang is then woken up, and soon arrives at the station where she sees Grandpa and yells "Yie-Yie!" The Chinese characters for Yie Yie are in super big print, so now Jason points them out and also shouts "Yie Yie!" As Xiao-Xiang walks away from the station holding hands with Yie-Yie and telling him about her adventures on the train, this "Mysterious Little Train" (as the title indicates) is preparing its night journey for the animals, who all start getting on one-by-one...
Huo Che Yao Kai Le (火车要开了) ISBN: 9787539420035. This book is great for the train-obsessed toddler who is also in the midst of learning about the different colors. The story is simple: Tom takes his toy train to school, and falls asleep in art class while the teacher is talking about colors. He goes on a colorful journey in his dream on this toy train, and each page is an imaginary land with a color as its theme. When he wakes up, he realizes his friends have drawn all these pictures similar to the places he visited on his adventure. They place the pictures on the floor, and play "choo choo train" pretending they are going to all these places. The story is a bit too simple for my older son Calvin now, but Jason has loved this book and has read it often for more than half a year now. At first, he was a little scared of one of the pages - here Tom's train goes into a tunnel where some fierce black dog-like "monsters" are seen. I was amazed though that the initial fear did not amount to anything, and now he reads through that page with no problems. Jason's favorite is the page with snow, where a snow man sits on the train track with a big hole in his tummy. Jason and I always throw up our hands on that page and yell: "Ai-ya, wo de du du bian cheng shan dong le! (Oh no, my tummy has turned into a tunnel!)"
Da Jia Yi Qi Pu Tie Gui (大家一起铺铁轨) ISBN: 9789862410271. If I could only choose one book to keep for the rest of my life, to capture the spirit of the boys at this precious age, I would seriously consider choosing this book. Calvin picked it out himself when he was three years old and shopping with my mom in a bookstore in Taiwan. It became his favorite book for many months - perhaps close to a year. At some point, it made the switch and became one of Jason's favorite books. It still is. The title means "Everybody builds the train tracks together", and that's pretty much what the book is about. Six adorable kids in overalls and hard hats are building a train track together in the middle of a beautifully drawn natural land. Every page only contains a few words, usually an obstacle, followed by the one-sentence resolution in the next page. For example, one page is "There's a mountain in the front - what do we do?" You turn the page to see these kids with drills and lamps on their hats working together digging a tunnel, and the words just say "Then we just dig a tunnel - ha, the tunnel has been completed!" The most fun part about reading this book is, Calvin automatically assigned a characters to himself. He assigned another one to Jason, which Jason readily accepted. Then they would look at the pictures and talk about what those characters are doing using the first person perspective. They would even start assigning their friends to the other characters - then we really had stories. We can also start talking about their interactions: for example, I might say "Calvin and Jason are carrying a long piece of steel together", or "Calvin is driving the train to the station and look, Jason, you're so excited to see Ge-Ge (big brother) that you're jumping up and down." When Jason gets too old for this book, I'm really going to be sad for a while.
Zhang Zhe Yan Jing De Huo Che Zhan (長著眼睛的火車站) ISBN: 9867375637. This is geared toward the older kid, but the water color paintings of trains present in almost every page are so enticing to the train addicts, even if they're too little to understand most of the words. ...and this is how we started, first with Calvin willing to sit through the long narrative in order to absorb all the illustrations, then with Jason doing the same thing. Now I believe both kids really understand the prose. Yes, I call it "prose" because the story reads like it was written by a fourth grader who has won some award writing an essay about the day when his parents took him and his little brother to see five famous train stations along the coast in Taiwan. The title means "train stations with eyes" and refers to a common architectural feature of these five stations - that they all have these round windows looking like cow's eyes. Like the title itself, the prose contains lots of metaphors. It is tempting to tell myself while reading this story that I'm contributing to their essay writing abilities in the future - but I'm not an expert in child psychology. The same writer and painter also published two other children's books, both about trains. One is "Huo Che Zai Wo Qu Kan Hai" (火车载我去看海) ISBN: 9867375602, and is about a boy's first time riding the train. He rides it on a field trip with his class, and his excitement over every experience is described in first person, again in well written prose. Calvin and Jason both enjoy this book as well, and again the water color paintings on every page is eye-catching. The other one is "Zai Ji Ji Xia Che" (在集集下车) ISBN: 9867375645. This is specifically about the earthquake in 1999 that hit Ji Ji (more commonly known as Chi-Chi), a rural city in central Taiwan, and killed around 2500 people. The story takes the viewpoint of three trains running through the Chi-Chi station, carrying readers from before the earthquake, through a page describing the earthquake, to the successful re-building of Chi-Chi station after the shock. This is a great story for an older child, and teaches many lessons about history, hope, working together. However, my kids are still too young and have not been as interested in this book.
Shen Mi Xiao Huo Che (神秘小火车) ISBN: 9576083176. This is one of a set of five books from a series of Aichi-published books sold only as sets (each with a VCD/CD). I will find a time to review these sets of books in the near future, as we now have (I think) all the sets. For now, I will focus on this book, which stars a little girl Xiao-Xiang who rides on a train herself for the first time. She falls asleep and dreams of the train going through snowy mountains, a tropical island, and the black forest. Of course, many animals appear on the way to make friends. Xiao-Xiang is then woken up, and soon arrives at the station where she sees Grandpa and yells "Yie-Yie!" The Chinese characters for Yie Yie are in super big print, so now Jason points them out and also shouts "Yie Yie!" As Xiao-Xiang walks away from the station holding hands with Yie-Yie and telling him about her adventures on the train, this "Mysterious Little Train" (as the title indicates) is preparing its night journey for the animals, who all start getting on one-by-one...
Selected Books
Wo Shui Bu Zhao (我睡不着), ISBN:9577513883. Have you also had the feeling that there aren't enough Chinese stories that rhyme, that all the rhyming has been reserved to the Tang Dynasty poems? Well, here is one, and it soon became one of my younger son Jason's favorites. The story begins with Mom turning off the lights to a little boy's room, but he says "Wo Shui Bu Zhao! (I can't sleep!)" He and his kitty then go on a fun, dreamy journey to the imaginary night-time city, and with each page turned is a new theme with a witty rhyme. For example, the boy plays guitar in a band with cats and dogs in the street, while a thief quietly runs along the roofs in the background. In the end, the boy gradually becomes more relaxed and starts falling asleep on a boat - of course, to be woken up by his mom telling him it's morning and time to go to school. Now he yells, "Wo hai xiang zai shui yi xia (I want to sleep some more!)". The very last page shows his kitty falling back asleep while he stumbles in his pajamas and book bag. The illustration is made from collages of newspaper and magazine material. I was not used to it at first - perhaps they reminded me too much of the often misspelled designs from Asia. However, we soon got past that detail and were charmed by the mixture of colors and the cute expressions on the characters. Overall, this was one of my favorite books to read to Jason during bedtime. The story is mellow but interesting, and the rhyming made him able to memorize many parts quickly.
Tu Nai Nai de Mien Bao Wu (兔奶奶的麵包屋), ISBN: 9867353188. Since it's getting toward that holiday season, I wanted to recommend this book as soon as possible. This is a heart-warming story about Tu Nai Nai (Grandma Rabbit) who, with the help of her little mice friends, make special Christmas treats for all the bunnies in the orphanage. The illustrations are nice, although with a little too much pink than what suits my taste. Frankly, my two boys liked this book, but it was never one that they asked me to read over and over without end. This book comes with the bonus of a couple of games after the main story, which my kids enjoyed (perhaps even more than the story itself).
Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu (真假小珍珠), ISBN: 9789866759109,9866759105. This was a real gem that we found! In fact, we first stumbled upon the sequel to Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu, called Xiao Xiao Ku Ba Wang (小小哭霸王), ISBN: 9789866759345,9866759342. We loved it so much that I immediately went online, looked for Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu and reserved it from the library. Xiao Zhen Zhu is a naughty (but extremely likable) elementary school girl in a "normal" family with mom, dad and little brother Ku Ba Wang. Xiao Zhen Zhu takes the stage in the first book, in which the whole family (including Xiao Zhen Zhu herself) order a Xiao Zhen Zhu robot from the Dream Factory that represents their ideal Xiao Zhen Zhu. Dad's ideal and mom's ideal are, of course, stereotypically over-polite girls wearing princess dresses. Ku Ba Wang's ideal Xiao Zhen Zhu is in overalls, and immediately offers to play with him and give him all the toys. Xiao Zhen Zhu herself orders a robot to be as much a real replicate of herself as possible, so that she can go out and play while Mom sees the shadow of the robot Xiao Zhen Zhu studying in the room. Of course, things go awry, and the robot was not as perfect as Xiao Zhen Zhu had originally thought... These plots were evolved through humorous dialogue and wonderful cartoon illustrations. The characters feel real and lovable at once. However, only those kids old enough to understand some of this satirical humor can get the most out of these stories. Even those who cannot fully comprehend Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu might still enjoy the follow-up book, Xiao Xiao Ku Ba Wang. This book containing three stories featuring Ku Ba Wang, Xiao Zhen Zhu's little brother (probably around 4 years old). They are less complex, and stem from the imaginations of a pre-school-age boy. My older son Calvin laughed so hard at certain parts of the stories - I think he really identifies with Ku Ba Wang. Even if your kids are too young, I would recommend the adults to get these books and read them. They are a delight, and will awaken the child in each of us.
Ai Chang Ge De Niao (愛唱歌的鳥), ISBN: 9867517695. Inspirational and funny at the same time, the main character Yi-Ge is a bird with a terrible voice who loves to sing. He fails at practicing himself, studies with a famous teacher (Miss Swan) and ends up corrupting the teacher's voice. He decides to leave music all together, only to find that no matter where he goes, there is music (there are some wonderful wordless pictures of a doggie punk band, kitty jazz band, African drumming alligators, a penguin choir, and a sheep orchestra). Finally, Yi-Ge settles in a dessert on a big piece of rock where he sees and hears no one. He could not help singing when he saw the beautiful sunset. His voice awakened the rock underneath him, which was actually a gigantic bird named Dou-Dou who had been sleeping for years. Dou-Dou loves Yi-Ge's voice, and joins him in singing together at the top of their lungs until sunrise. Of course, they decide to become best friends and travel the world together as a duet. The voices are illustrated throughout the book as wavy, colorful lines. You can almost tell from the shapes and colors what the voice sounds like. I have a recording of this story, but the illustrations add so much more to the words, and make a creative connection between art and music.
Qi Chuang la Huang Di (起床啦皇帝), ISBN: 9622406092. This is a humorous mix of modern story-telling set in the background of the Chinese imperial palace, in which a fictional little boy is an emperor who just cannot get up in the mornings. The illustration is done with a special type of paper cutting, and there is a nice balance of details needed for the setting and the simplicity needed to convey the characters' expressions. For example, Calvin always laughs at the expressions on the eunich who runs behind the sleeping emperor (being dragged by another eunich), yelling "Emperor, you forgot your hat!" The story seems to break into two halves. The first half rhymes, and describes the emperor's late-rising habits. The second half stops rhyming and becomes a dialogue between the emperor and a poor farmer boy who slipped into the palace to pick ball. They ended up kicking ball together, and decided to do this every morning as an incentive to wake themselves up. This friendship lasts through a page that illustrates the four seasons showing the passing of time, and we arrive at the final page of the two adult versions of the emperor and the farmer kicking ball together. No matter how many times I read this story, the last page always brings a little smile to both my and Calvin's faces. I do need to warn those with sensitive kids: I usually skip the part on the first page about this emperor's father and grandfather dying, and go straight to him being an emperor without much background. I also skip the sentence where the empress (emperor's mom) spanks the eunichs to punish them for not getting the emperor up in time.
Qi E Re Qi Qiu (企鹅热气球), ISBN: 9789866759147,9866759148. What kid does not like penguins? What kid does not dream of riding on a hot air balloon? This story satisfies the fantasies of the majority of kids, including the kid in me. With no explanations needed, Penguin lands his hot air balloon in the forest and offers rides to all the animals. The book is then broken into several tales, each describing a particular journey. I have recorded two of these episodes, one of which starts with a turtle who spent all night walking to make sure he was the first one to get to the hot air balloon in the morning. However, he forgot to get his ticket! So he "runs" back to get his ticket, and meanwhile Penguin will not let any animal go in front of him. All is merry though - Penguin thinks of many fun activities for the animals while they wait. Finally, they all paint a message for Turtle on the hot air balloon so that Turtle would be inspired to keep "running". You can imagine the happy ending. Even though the plot does not have as much "conflict" as many people require for a story to be interesting, the dialogues are humorous, and the characters look adorable. I believe most children will love this book, as my kids do.
Are your kids as much into trains as mine are? Next time, I will review our favorite train-related Chinese children's books. There are many!!
Tu Nai Nai de Mien Bao Wu (兔奶奶的麵包屋), ISBN: 9867353188. Since it's getting toward that holiday season, I wanted to recommend this book as soon as possible. This is a heart-warming story about Tu Nai Nai (Grandma Rabbit) who, with the help of her little mice friends, make special Christmas treats for all the bunnies in the orphanage. The illustrations are nice, although with a little too much pink than what suits my taste. Frankly, my two boys liked this book, but it was never one that they asked me to read over and over without end. This book comes with the bonus of a couple of games after the main story, which my kids enjoyed (perhaps even more than the story itself).
Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu (真假小珍珠), ISBN: 9789866759109,9866759105. This was a real gem that we found! In fact, we first stumbled upon the sequel to Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu, called Xiao Xiao Ku Ba Wang (小小哭霸王), ISBN: 9789866759345,9866759342. We loved it so much that I immediately went online, looked for Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu and reserved it from the library. Xiao Zhen Zhu is a naughty (but extremely likable) elementary school girl in a "normal" family with mom, dad and little brother Ku Ba Wang. Xiao Zhen Zhu takes the stage in the first book, in which the whole family (including Xiao Zhen Zhu herself) order a Xiao Zhen Zhu robot from the Dream Factory that represents their ideal Xiao Zhen Zhu. Dad's ideal and mom's ideal are, of course, stereotypically over-polite girls wearing princess dresses. Ku Ba Wang's ideal Xiao Zhen Zhu is in overalls, and immediately offers to play with him and give him all the toys. Xiao Zhen Zhu herself orders a robot to be as much a real replicate of herself as possible, so that she can go out and play while Mom sees the shadow of the robot Xiao Zhen Zhu studying in the room. Of course, things go awry, and the robot was not as perfect as Xiao Zhen Zhu had originally thought... These plots were evolved through humorous dialogue and wonderful cartoon illustrations. The characters feel real and lovable at once. However, only those kids old enough to understand some of this satirical humor can get the most out of these stories. Even those who cannot fully comprehend Zhen Jia Xiao Zhen Zhu might still enjoy the follow-up book, Xiao Xiao Ku Ba Wang. This book containing three stories featuring Ku Ba Wang, Xiao Zhen Zhu's little brother (probably around 4 years old). They are less complex, and stem from the imaginations of a pre-school-age boy. My older son Calvin laughed so hard at certain parts of the stories - I think he really identifies with Ku Ba Wang. Even if your kids are too young, I would recommend the adults to get these books and read them. They are a delight, and will awaken the child in each of us.
Ai Chang Ge De Niao (愛唱歌的鳥), ISBN: 9867517695. Inspirational and funny at the same time, the main character Yi-Ge is a bird with a terrible voice who loves to sing. He fails at practicing himself, studies with a famous teacher (Miss Swan) and ends up corrupting the teacher's voice. He decides to leave music all together, only to find that no matter where he goes, there is music (there are some wonderful wordless pictures of a doggie punk band, kitty jazz band, African drumming alligators, a penguin choir, and a sheep orchestra). Finally, Yi-Ge settles in a dessert on a big piece of rock where he sees and hears no one. He could not help singing when he saw the beautiful sunset. His voice awakened the rock underneath him, which was actually a gigantic bird named Dou-Dou who had been sleeping for years. Dou-Dou loves Yi-Ge's voice, and joins him in singing together at the top of their lungs until sunrise. Of course, they decide to become best friends and travel the world together as a duet. The voices are illustrated throughout the book as wavy, colorful lines. You can almost tell from the shapes and colors what the voice sounds like. I have a recording of this story, but the illustrations add so much more to the words, and make a creative connection between art and music.
Qi Chuang la Huang Di (起床啦皇帝), ISBN: 9622406092. This is a humorous mix of modern story-telling set in the background of the Chinese imperial palace, in which a fictional little boy is an emperor who just cannot get up in the mornings. The illustration is done with a special type of paper cutting, and there is a nice balance of details needed for the setting and the simplicity needed to convey the characters' expressions. For example, Calvin always laughs at the expressions on the eunich who runs behind the sleeping emperor (being dragged by another eunich), yelling "Emperor, you forgot your hat!" The story seems to break into two halves. The first half rhymes, and describes the emperor's late-rising habits. The second half stops rhyming and becomes a dialogue between the emperor and a poor farmer boy who slipped into the palace to pick ball. They ended up kicking ball together, and decided to do this every morning as an incentive to wake themselves up. This friendship lasts through a page that illustrates the four seasons showing the passing of time, and we arrive at the final page of the two adult versions of the emperor and the farmer kicking ball together. No matter how many times I read this story, the last page always brings a little smile to both my and Calvin's faces. I do need to warn those with sensitive kids: I usually skip the part on the first page about this emperor's father and grandfather dying, and go straight to him being an emperor without much background. I also skip the sentence where the empress (emperor's mom) spanks the eunichs to punish them for not getting the emperor up in time.
Qi E Re Qi Qiu (企鹅热气球), ISBN: 9789866759147,9866759148. What kid does not like penguins? What kid does not dream of riding on a hot air balloon? This story satisfies the fantasies of the majority of kids, including the kid in me. With no explanations needed, Penguin lands his hot air balloon in the forest and offers rides to all the animals. The book is then broken into several tales, each describing a particular journey. I have recorded two of these episodes, one of which starts with a turtle who spent all night walking to make sure he was the first one to get to the hot air balloon in the morning. However, he forgot to get his ticket! So he "runs" back to get his ticket, and meanwhile Penguin will not let any animal go in front of him. All is merry though - Penguin thinks of many fun activities for the animals while they wait. Finally, they all paint a message for Turtle on the hot air balloon so that Turtle would be inspired to keep "running". You can imagine the happy ending. Even though the plot does not have as much "conflict" as many people require for a story to be interesting, the dialogues are humorous, and the characters look adorable. I believe most children will love this book, as my kids do.
Are your kids as much into trains as mine are? Next time, I will review our favorite train-related Chinese children's books. There are many!!
Purpose and Background
Finding reviews of English children's books that you can order from Amazon is super easy in the United States. Similarly, in Taiwan or China, many websites exist that review children's books as well as sell them directly to you. However, finding Chinese children's books in the U.S. can be a problem in itself. Even when you're in a place already surrounded by Chinese culture such as the San Francisco Bay Area, it may still be difficult to know which are the best Chinese books for your kids, and where to get them from. My purpose here is not to solve all these problems. Rather, I'm going to take a very simple approach of focusing on how and where we get our Chinese children's books, and which ones we like. Just a little background - my son Calvin is 4 1/2 years old, and my other son Jason is 2 1/2 years old. My husband is American and speaks primarily English (with some Chinese words and phrases here and there). I was born in Taiwan and came to Virginia to start 7th grade there. I did manage to pick up English really quickly, and fortunately also continued with Chinese. So now I speak Mandarin to the kids, and read them Chinese books every night by their bedside. Amazingly, they still mostly speak Mandarin to me, and Calvin's Mandarin is quite advanced such that he can comprehend even the more complex stories.
My Sources of Chinese Children's Books
1. Library. We have the fortune of living close to the Millbrae branch of the San Mateo County Libraries. I believe amongst these branches, Millbrae and Foster City may have the largest Chinese children's collections. The next largest may be the main San Mateo library, and some books seem to also be in Daly City. However, the benefit is that you can look for books online, and when you find the ones you want, the library will hold and deliver those books to your selected branch for 75 cents. In my list of books below, and also for the books for which I have made audio soundtracks (https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5DrHelJxyNSZGU1MTczMDEtZGQzNS00YmQwLWFmYmEtYzE0Yzc1N2UyNWNl&hl=en), I include their ISBN numbers which can be used to search for specific books online via the library site. Oh, and before I forget, here's the Peninsula Library's website: http://www.plsinfo.org/.
2. Books and Me (http://www.booksandme.org/). This is a non-profit cultural foundation located in Los Altos. It really comes down to a couple of rooms in an office building there, but the main room is packed with Chinese children's books. I used to drive there once a month to satisfy my cravings, but the distance (coupled with their policies on maximum number of books and a maximum of 4 weeks per book) made it difficult.
3. Local bookstores. The one closest to us is Nan Hai in Millbrae. Nan Hai also has a website from which you can order books online (http://www.nanhai.com/), but I've not used that. Another place around us is the World Journal headquarters in Millbrae (世界日报）(http://www.worldjournal.com/pages/contact_us). I'm sure there are many other places, but we just haven't explored far enough.
4. Directly from Asia. Of course this would involve either a trip by you, or some favors from grandparents or aunts and uncles. Amongst some of our recommended books, I will also include ones that we got directly from Taiwan, which I have not seen in any libraries or bookstores here yet.
Finding reviews of English children's books that you can order from Amazon is super easy in the United States. Similarly, in Taiwan or China, many websites exist that review children's books as well as sell them directly to you. However, finding Chinese children's books in the U.S. can be a problem in itself. Even when you're in a place already surrounded by Chinese culture such as the San Francisco Bay Area, it may still be difficult to know which are the best Chinese books for your kids, and where to get them from. My purpose here is not to solve all these problems. Rather, I'm going to take a very simple approach of focusing on how and where we get our Chinese children's books, and which ones we like. Just a little background - my son Calvin is 4 1/2 years old, and my other son Jason is 2 1/2 years old. My husband is American and speaks primarily English (with some Chinese words and phrases here and there). I was born in Taiwan and came to Virginia to start 7th grade there. I did manage to pick up English really quickly, and fortunately also continued with Chinese. So now I speak Mandarin to the kids, and read them Chinese books every night by their bedside. Amazingly, they still mostly speak Mandarin to me, and Calvin's Mandarin is quite advanced such that he can comprehend even the more complex stories.
My Sources of Chinese Children's Books
1. Library. We have the fortune of living close to the Millbrae branch of the San Mateo County Libraries. I believe amongst these branches, Millbrae and Foster City may have the largest Chinese children's collections. The next largest may be the main San Mateo library, and some books seem to also be in Daly City. However, the benefit is that you can look for books online, and when you find the ones you want, the library will hold and deliver those books to your selected branch for 75 cents. In my list of books below, and also for the books for which I have made audio soundtracks (https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5DrHelJxyNSZGU1MTczMDEtZGQzNS00YmQwLWFmYmEtYzE0Yzc1N2UyNWNl&hl=en), I include their ISBN numbers which can be used to search for specific books online via the library site. Oh, and before I forget, here's the Peninsula Library's website: http://www.plsinfo.org/.
2. Books and Me (http://www.booksandme.org/). This is a non-profit cultural foundation located in Los Altos. It really comes down to a couple of rooms in an office building there, but the main room is packed with Chinese children's books. I used to drive there once a month to satisfy my cravings, but the distance (coupled with their policies on maximum number of books and a maximum of 4 weeks per book) made it difficult.
3. Local bookstores. The one closest to us is Nan Hai in Millbrae. Nan Hai also has a website from which you can order books online (http://www.nanhai.com/), but I've not used that. Another place around us is the World Journal headquarters in Millbrae (世界日报）(http://www.worldjournal.com/pages/contact_us). I'm sure there are many other places, but we just haven't explored far enough.
4. Directly from Asia. Of course this would involve either a trip by you, or some favors from grandparents or aunts and uncles. Amongst some of our recommended books, I will also include ones that we got directly from Taiwan, which I have not seen in any libraries or bookstores here yet.
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