Thematic Lists

Happy New Year ... in July! This versatile collection of engaging original poems showcases New Year celebrations throughout the year and around the world. In many places around the globe, the new year starts on January 1. But not everywhere! Chinese New Year is celebrated in January or February. Iranians observe Nowruz in March. For Thai people, Songkran occurs in April. Ethiopians greet the new year at Enkutatash in September. All these celebrations, and many others, have deep-rooted traditions and treasured customs. Acclaimed poet Marilyn Singer has created a lively poetry collection that highlights sixteen of these fascinating festivities, some well-known and some less familiar. Together with Susan L. Roth's captivating collage illustrations, the poems take readers to the heart of these beloved holidays. Every month of the year, somewhere in the world people celebrate with joy and good wishes for a happy new year.

A picture book based on the author's own immigration story, the infinite impact of friendship, and passing on love and kindness around the world. On a snowy Lunar New Year's Eve in Northeastern China, it's Dandan's last night with Yueyue. Tomorrow, she moves to America. The two best friends have a favorite wintertime tradition: crafting paper-cut snowflakes, freezing them outside, and hanging them as ornaments. As they say goodbye, Yueyue presses red paper and a spool of thread into Dandan's hands so that she can carry on their tradition. But in her new home, Dandan has no one to enjoy the gift with--until a friend comes along.

It's Lunar New Year, a time when families come together for a wonderful feast, and a father longs to be with his daughter--but she lives in another country. As he imagines how his daughter is spending the festivities, he recalls fond memories of time spent with her, feeling a sense of loss and dislocation. While he misses her deeply, he also recognizes her need to move away, grow up, and become herself. New Year is a stunning portrait of leaving home, finding independence, and loving those who are many miles away. With so many families living far apart, readers will relate to the universal message of missing our loved ones and dreaming of being together again. An excellent resource for teachers, librarians, and parents for starting conversations about: The traditions and importance of Lunar New Year; Understanding the complex feelings that come from family and friends living far away; and How to cope with feelings of loneliness and missing loved ones

Zhao Di wishes the New Year would never end! Zhao Di and her friends are excited to go out at night with their paper lanterns and celebrate Chinese New Year. Each holding a unique colorful lantern with a lit candle inside, they admire the breathtaking colors while doing their best to avoid the wind and the sneaky boys in the village. Every night, until the fifteenth day of New Year, Zhao Di and her friends take part in this fun tradition, experiencing the thrill of nighttime in their village. And then--it's time to smash the lanterns! In this cheerful book first published in China, readers are invited along with Zhao Di and her friends as they experience all the joy and excitement of this folk Chinese custom. Details about the paper lantern tradition are also included in an author's note at the end of the book.

Mindy is excited to celebrate the Lunar New Year! Even though it's the first one without her mom, Mindy is determined to enjoy the day. She decides to make traditional Korean New Year food, a rice cake soup that's her favorite. But things aren't going quite to plan, and the celebration doesn't feel the same as it did before. With the help of her family and friends, can Mindy find a way to still enjoy her old holiday traditions, and create new ones along the way?

The legendary Nian monster has returned at Chinese New Year. Nian is intent on devouring Shanghai, starting with young Xingling! But Xingling is clever and thinks quickly to outwit him with Chinese New Year traditions

It's Chinese New Year, and Goldy Luck's mother wants her to take a plate of turnip cakes to the neighbors. The Chans aren't home, but that doesn't stop Goldy from trying out their rice porridge, their chairs, and their beds-with disastrous results. In this funny and festive retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Natasha Yim and Grace Zong introduce a plucky heroine who takes responsibility for her actions and makes a new friend (and a whole plate of turnip cakes!), just in time for Chinese New Year. Includes back matter about Chinese New Year and a recipe for turnip cakes.

Through beautiful illustrations, Celebrating Chinese Festivals presents the most important and celebrated festivals of China, and explains the traditions, the delicious foods, the exciting activities and special customs that go with them! Readers will experience many Chinese festivities together with Little Mei and her family as they celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival, the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Festival of the Cow Herder and the Weaving Maiden, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Double Ninth Festival. The classic Chinese legends and poems in this colorful book will help children understand Chinese culture, and the recipes for tasty festival treats will delight those who love Chinese food.

For this multicultural family, inspired by the author's own, two New Years mean twice as much to celebrate! In the fall, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, offers an opportunity to bake challah, dip apples in honey, and lift voices in song. In the spring, Lunar New Year brings a chance to eat dumplings, watch dragon dances, and release glowing lanterns that light up the sky. With bright, joyful prose and luminous illustrations, Richard Ho and Lynn Scurfield invite readers of all backgrounds to experience the beauty of two New Year traditions, paying homage to the practices that make each unique while illuminating the values of abundance, family, and hope that they share. Full of opportunities to reflect on the rich blends of cultures and traditions in our lives, this moving picture book is a beautiful reminder that, at heart, our celebrations might not be so different after all.

Chelsea's family is celebrating Chinese New Year! Chelsea gets to stay up late. She watches fireworks and a parade with a dragon! She and her family have a big feast. Find out the different ways people celebrate this special day!

Little Maomao's father works in faraway places and comes home just once a year, for Chinese New Year. At first Maomao barely recognizes him, but before long the family is happily making sticky rice balls, listening to firecrackers, and watching the dragon dance in the streets below. Papa gets a haircut, makes repairs to the house, and hides a lucky coin for Maomao to find. Which she does! But all too soon it is time for Papa to go away again.

Julie knows the holidays will be difficult this year, but when her sister Tracy refuses to go to Dad's house for Christmas, Julie feels as if her family is falling apart. Julie finds comfort spending time with her best friend, Ivy Ling, whose family is getting ready for Chinese New Year. When Julie's whole family is invited to the Lings' New Year banquet, Julie worries about how they will get along. That night she discovers that they all have a chance at a new beginning. The "Looking Back" section explores Chinese New Year traditions.

Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life

Rich, luminous fabrics. Eleven miles of thread. An uncountable number of stitches. Clear, sparkling words. With these ingredients Anna Grossnickle Hines celebrates the lights that brighten the darkest season of our year. In poems and quilts she captures each heartening glow and flicker, from the moon and aurora borealis to the holiday lights of Santa Lucia, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year to one lone candle and a hidden flashlight in the deep, dark night.

Depicts a San Francisco boy and his family preparing for and enjoying their celebration of the Chinese New Year, their most important holiday

Long ago, people found a way to light the darkness. They built fires to keep warm and cook their food. They lit torches to drive away danger. To help them see at night, they learned to make candles and lanterns. Light was so important in their lives that they came to use it in worship and in celebrations. From a Brazilian New Year's celebration to the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, Celebrations of Light circles the year and the globe. The text and paintings highlight twelve festivals, showing the diverse ways in which people around the world use light as a major part of their celebrations. In each of these holidays, light plays a significant role, marking and brightening special days.

In a riveting narrative set in fifteenth-century Korea, two brothers discover a shared passion for kites. Kee-sup can craft a kite unequaled in strength and beauty, but his younger brother, Young-sup, can fly a kite as if he controlled the wind itself. Their combined skills attract the notice of Korea's young king, who chooses Young-sup to fly the royal kite in the New Year kite-flying competition--an honor that is also an awesome responsibility. Although tradition decrees, and the boys' father insists, that the older brother represent the family, both brothers know that this time the family's honor is best left in Young-sup's hands. This touching and suspenseful story, filled with the authentic detail and flavor of traditional Korean kite fighting, brings a remarkable setting vividly to life.

Explains the significance of the Chinese New Year and describes its celebration by Chinese Americans

The world is changing for two girls in China in the 1970s. Da Qin--Big Piano--and her younger sister, Xiao Qin--Little Piano--live in the city of Wuhan with their parents. For decades, China's government had kept the country separated from the rest of the world. When their country's leader, Chairman Mao, dies, new opportunities begin to emerge. Da Qin and Xiao Qin soon learn that their childhood will be much different than the upbringing their parents experienced.

There are many ways to celebrate the New Year. Some people celebrate with confetti, special foods, parades, or by sprinkling scented water on children's heads! In this book, five people describe the New Year traditions in their families.

A girl longs to return to the Chinese island where she was born to look for dragons. Her dream finally comes true when her family returns to celebrate Chinese New Year. The girl helps her grandparents prepare for the holiday and then joins in on the big holiday parade. When night falls, she goes out with her grandfather in a boat and finally learns about the secet of dragons.

With more than 80 activities in each book, these valuable resources will enrich your curriculum. For each activity, literature links promote reading, while Internet links encourage the best use of technology. Individual and team projects for K-5 classrooms, connected to NCTE standards.
Includes an activity for Chinese New Year

These open-ended Holiday & Seasonal Chipper Chat game boards will provide hours of fun all year 'round. The open-ended, themed game boards display celebrations, holidays, famous Americans' birthdays, and national observances every month of the year from back to school to the end of summer.
Choose your teaching topics: articulation, fluency, reading, math...any lesson! Students earn magnetic chips by making correct responses. After filling a game board with chips, the fun begins as the students move the magnetic wand over them and watch the chips "fly!"
Contains a game board related to Chinese New Year