New Year's celebrations mean different things to different people. Sometimes it is a time for new beginnings, and sometimes it is a time for looking back. In this picture book readers will meet a little girl whose New Year's celebration has an added significance because it is the only time of year when she gets to see her father.
A New Year’s Reunion
A New Year’s Reunion
Yu Li-Qiong
Illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang
Picture Book
For ages 4 to 7
Candlewick Press, 2011, 978-0-7636-5881-6
Chinese New year is a wonderful celebration for children
all over China, but for one Maomao it is an extra special time of year because
her father, who “builds houses in faraway places,” comes home.
One cold morning
Maomao and her mother wake up early because Papa is arriving that day. Soon
enough he has his big arms around Maomao. Maomao is a little alarmed because
Papa has a prickly beard on his face and he seems different, but after he
visits the barber, the little girl feels better. Papa is starting to look “the
way he used to be.” Back at home Maomao and her family make sticky balls to eat
and Papa hides a coin inside one of them. They hear fireworks going off outside
as they fall asleep.
In the morning
Maomao is the one who finds the coin inside one of her sticky balls. How
excited the little girl is that she is the one who got the “fortune coin.” She
is so excited that she shows her friend the coin when the family goes out
visiting.
Day after day
unfolds with new and exciting things to do with Papa, Mama, and with Maomao’s
friends. There is a dragon dance to watch and snow to play in. Then, on the
third day of New Years, when Maomao goes home after playing in the snow, she
discovers something terrible; she has lost her fortune coin.
In this sweet
and heartwarming picture book, the author and illustrator combine their talents
to share Chinese New Year traditions with their readers and to tell the story
of a little girl whose New Year celebration is a particularly special time of
year. The joy and excitement that the little girl feels comes through clearly
in the narrative, and readers will feel warmed by the love that is strong in Maomao’s
family.
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