Kids Books about Chinese Food, Picture Books

We are finishing up our focus on Chinese food in my after-school Mandarin class. It has been FUN!!!
The kids all have some experience with Chinese food, so they are very motivated to learn. We're wrapping up our session with play-acting a restaurant scene: being ushered to a table by a server, placing an order, and thanking the server. More on that later!

There are some great English-language picture books that introduce Chinese food to kids. Here are some of my favorites. They are sure to entertain, and might even make your tummy rumble!

1.  I'm the Chef! The Young Chef's Chinese Cookbook by France Lee (Crabtree Publishing, 2001). 

Okay, so not a picture book, but a darn good kids' Chinese cookbook. Includes recipes for soups, main dishes (sweet and sour prawns, tofu with pork), old standards (long life noodles and fried rice), and treats (egg custard tarts).

I absolutely love how each recipe shows a picture of the ingredients used and what each step should look like. This is what makes it kid-friendly!

We tried making the egg custard tarts, and they turned out fabulous (Read about and see pictures of our experience making egg custard tarts on my old blog, Rice and Pasta, Please!)


2.  The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compestine (Penguin Dutton, 2011)

A rollicking Chinese New Year story about a poor peasant boy Ming who trades his family’s last eggs for a magic wok. The wok goes rogue through ancient Beijing, stealing succulent dishes, toys, and money from the stingy but wealthy Li family, and depositing the goodies at Ming’s house. Ming’s family distributes the treats to the whole village, who then celebrate the New Year together as the wok whisks the Li family out of town.

• Author's note about Chinese New Year and recipe for Festive Fried Rice included in the back.  
• Kids will love the lively story and colorful illustrations.  
• If you like this book, check out Compestine’s The Runaway Rice Cake (2001), another Chinese New Year tale involving magic and food.

2.  Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin (Knopf, Borzoi Books, 2001)

My list of kids books about Chinese food would not be complete without Grace Lin! The theme of delicious Chinese food is woven throughout this Newberry Honor winner's delightful picture and chapter books. Dim Sum for Everyone is the story of a little girl’s visit to a Dim Sum restaurant with her family. She discovers that food is served food from carts pushed by servers, and that everyone gets to choose and share the dish that their heart desires because dim sum means "touches the heart"!

• The illustrations are enchanting: drawings of ingredients and Chinese food dance on the inside cover…just seeing them makes me hungry!
• Author’s note at the end explains the history and current traditions of dim sum.

3. HappyBelly, Happy Smile by Rachel Isadora (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2009) 

A sweet story by Caldecott Honor-winner Rachel Isadora about a little boys' adventure to a Chinatown restaurant with his has grandpa. He looks at the fish in the tank, visits the chefs in the kitchen, watches them prepare the food, and then shares a meal with his grandpa, including a fortune cookie that has a special message.

Look for pieces of Chinese restaurant take-out menu and pictures of real food in Isadora's vibrant, textured collage and oil illustrations. 

What are your favorite children's books about Chinese food?  

Spring Book Review: A Nest in Springtime

Spring is finally upon us, and I could not be more excited to see the tips of daffodils and tulips poking through the dirt in my garden.  To celebrate spring's arrival and the conclusion of our number study in my beginning Mandarin class, I shared the bilingual children's book, A Nest in Springtime: A Bilingual Book of Numbers by Belle Yang (Candlewick Press, 2012). Although written for a younger audience, my 1st-3rd graders enjoyed hearing me read the endearing story, first in Mandarin and then translating to English words they had not studied yet. They participated by reading all the numbers in the story (in Mandarin, or course=).  

A great book for beginning Mandarin students and their families: It's not easy to find a Mandarin language children's book that beginning language students can read. 

• A Nest in Springtime is great for kids who are learning to read Chinese characters, especially those who are familiar with the characters for numbers 1-8. They will be able to read 3-4 pages of the book!
• The story is simple with a limited vocab (it's a board book). English translations are shared on opposite pages, and pinyin pronunciation for the Chinese characters in the story is provided on the last page. This option is great for people like me who aren't super at reading traditional characters (繁體字) or who are new to learning Chinese.  
• Beautiful jewel-toned illustrations. These make story a joy to read!

To learn how to count from 1-10 in Mandarin, check out this great video put together by Daily Noodles: 

To practice writing your numbers 1-10 in Chinese characters, check out my post: Back-to-school Printable: How to write Numbers 1-10 in Chinese characters. 

 How will you be celebrating the arrival of spring? 

7 Great Resources for Learning Chinese Visually

This past year, I've stumbled upon all sorts of resources--videos, apps, websites, and books--that teach Chinese characters through colorful graphic art and design. 
It's a beautiful thing--this coming together of educators and graphic artists to create these new resources.
I have found their ideas to be so effective in my home. My kids love having a visual image to link to the characters they are learning.
Here's a quick review of 7 Great Resources that teach Chinese characters visually:   

1. Chineasy

What it is: 

• This website is dedicated to teaching people about the Chineasy method, which was developed by Shao Lan as a way to teach people to read Chinese easily by recognising characters through simple illustrations.

What they offer: 

• The Chineasy approach introduces building blocks (simple pictographs), and then compounds (made up of 2 or more building blocks), and finally phrases (consisting of 2 or more independent characters)
• She's fully connected to social media--You can follow Chineasy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GooglePlus, or subscribe to the website.

• Print versions of the graphic illustrations (Chineasy book, flashcards, or postcards) can also be purchased. 

What I love:

• The beautiful, boldly-colored graphic illustrations created by graphic designer Noma Bar. These are works of art!

A Wish:

• I wish there were more characters offered!! Maybe a Volume 2?

2. chi.guru

What it is: 

• This is a subscription-based website from Switzerland that uses videos for teaching Chinese language and "picture stories" for teaching Chinese characters.  
• The picture stories are illustrations/graphic depictions of characters and the different radicals that make up the characters. For example, the character 四 (four) is made up of the character for child (儿) and mouth (口). 

What they offer: 

• I have not subscribed to their site, and have not viewed their teaching videos, but they offer access to a number of "picture stories" for free. 

What I love:

• The simple illustrations effectively convey the meaning of the characters. 

A Wish:

• I wish they offered downloadable or print materials of their picture stories for purchase--they are the real gems of the website. 

3. The Learning Lotus Project 

What it is: 

• This is described as a "visual-based learning system for reading and writing Chinese characters" 
• Created by an educator, graphic designer, and developer, they describe the purpose of their project as "sharing the richness of the characters' form through visual illustrations and the fascinating logic and cultural insight behind each character."

What they offer: 

• They post illustrations of radicals, pictographs, and compound characters.
• You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Images can be Pinned.

What I love: 

• Their graphic illustrations of the characters are beautiful--multi-colored, and cleverly designed. They convey the meaning of the characters easily within one illustration. 

A Wish:

• Again, I wish that some of these images were offered in print or downloadable form. It would be wonderful to use them in the classroom. 

 

4. choumeizai Youtube Channel 

What it is: 

• They describe themselves as "A fun and easy way to learn Hanzi."

What they offer: 

• Short videos that show the evolution of Chinese characters from oracle bone inscriptions to modern characters.

What I love: 

• I've found some of these videos really helpful in showing students how the meaning of the characters is linked to the ancient oracle bone characters.
• The background music for each video is very catchy--It will get stuck in your head! 

5. Monki Chinese Class by Monkimun

What it is: 

• An app that teaches kids how to write beginning Chinese characters through tracing  characters on the screen with their finger. When the character is properly traced 2 times, a graphic illustration of the character (pictograph) appears behind the character. 

What they offer: 

• 2 levels of tracing speed/difficulty 

• Level 1: They show you how to write the character and you trace over the still-visible character. 
• Level 2: They show you how to write the character, and then it disappears. With the help of directional arrows, your write the character with your finger.

What I love: 

• When the character is twice correctly traced, the illustrations become animated: The "mouth" tries to bite your hand. The "door" swings open to show a growling monster--very cute!

A Wish

• Only 10 characters are offered with the free version. For $4.99 you can buy the full version, but this only gives you 10 more characters. Fantastic idea...just wish more characters were offered!

6. The Pet Dragon by Christoph Niemann

What it is: 

• A picture book about a little girl named Lin Lin and the dragon she receives as a gift.

• Illustrator, author, and graphic designer Christoph Niemann depicts the meaning of Chinese characters by drawing them into his illustrations: the character 父 (fu, father) becomes Lin’s angry father’s eyebrows and mustache.

What I love: 

• The illustrations are super creative, reinforcing the meaning of Chinese characters in a cute story about a girl and her dragon.

7. Chineasy by Shao Lan Hsueh and Noma Bar

What it is: 

• The book behind Shao Lan's Chineasy method. 

What it offers: 

• She includes building blocks, compounds, phrases, and advanced sentences in the book, as well as the classic story of Peter and the Wolf told by using the graphic-illustrated Chinese characters--This is brilliant!

• See my review for more a more detailed review of the book.

What I love:

• Noma Bar's beautiful graphic illustrations, and did I mention that the story Peter and the Wolf is included? ; )

What resources do you use for learning and teaching Chinese visually?