Fun Books to Celebrate the Lunar New Year!
BY SHIRLEY ERSKINE-SCHREYER & EILEEN BERNARDI
Welcome to the year of the Tiger! A year which, according to tradition and Chinese astrologists, has the great potential of being rather explosive (umm…great?). But lucky for us this is the year of the Water Tiger (referring to the five elements of earth, metal, fire, wood and water), so the ferocity is likely to be somewhat “watered down”.
Here in the States, there is so much more acknowledgment and celebration of the Lunar New Year than when I left fifteen years ago. My 6-year-old comes home from school packed with facts about the holiday celebrated by millions of people worldwide, and several of the school districts in the NYC metro area recognize the holiday by closing schools (including New York City schools). All this to say that I’m grateful for the plethora of children’s books dedicated to the topic and the celebration of Chinese and Chinese-American identity. Kids (and their parents) will love learning about Lunar New Year traditions like what’s so important about the color red (and red underwear!), why people buy new clothes, what’s in those red envelopes and the significance of lantern festivals. So, happy reading and from all of us here at Wunderhaus…we wish you all plenty of good fortune for the new year (lord knows we need it)!