Just Read!

April 12, 2026 By Maria

Have you read a book and thought that’s so funny because it’s true, and then paused as you realized, oh it is true. . .I had that experience when I read the Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary. 

Today, April 12th, is D.E.A.R. Day and the anniversary of Beverly Cleary’s birthday. D.E.A.R. is an acronym for Drop Every And Read that started in 2006 in honor of Beverly Cleary’s 90th birthday. Cleary passed away in 2021 at the age of 104. Check out this photo of her here on her website. I can imagine Cleary smiling sweetly like that while watching kids read her stories still today.

My first introduction to Ramona Quimby, one of Cleary’s iconic characters, was when I watched the 2010 Ramona and Beezus movie with one of my best friends. She was very excited to see this movie, but I had no idea what it was about. I did end up enjoying it then and even more when I rewatched it years later with my kids. By then I had discovered the lady behind Ramona, the author: Beverly Cleary. 

Beverly Cleary was a mother and librarian in Oregon who decided to write books for ordinary kids about ordinary kids and she never went back. The children in her books are so alive! They are mischievous and imaginative, they get into trouble, they struggle and they have fun. Their world is our world. I did not read any of Cleary’s books until I was an adult and a parent. I know this influenced my appreciation of her work. The kids in her books and their antics reminded me so much of my own kids and others in my life. The characters are so real to me. 

Back around five years or so, I started listening to the Ramona series audiobooks in the car with my kids. They were delightful and made me laugh out loud and sigh. I was almost more invested in the story than my kids. 

In Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona squeezes out a whole family sized bottle of toothpaste into the sink in order to sculpt a rosebud cake. I was laughing at the realness of this scene. Since I could definitely imagine a couple of my kids doing this, it was doubly funny to see the look of horror on their faces as we listened to this part of the book. I do have to credit Ramona’s mother, she handled the whole situation very well. I probably would have reacted more like Beezus, at least initially. During the toilet paper shortage of 2020, my four year old, in his attempt to use the bathroom independently, unfortunately used up almost a whole roll of toilet paper at one bathroom visit. This was definitely a similar Ramona moment for me. I was annoyed, but Cleary helped me appreciate the humor in that moment and handle it with more grace. 

While my kids saw the actions of Ramona as very naughty or maybe even scary, I could see Ramona’s curioustity and how she acted without thinking, like a child. 

My kids felt sympathetic when Ramona’s boots got stuck in the mud in Ramona the Pest. I was able to see the funny side of the situation. I had rescued them from equally “dire” and hilarious situations, such as getting stuck in the shelf of a side table. My kids were almost surprised I found Ramona getting stuck in the mud funny. 

When Ramona attempts to run away in Ramona and Her Mother, my kids were surprised and worried.  I found their reaction amusing because I have heard that threat from them at different times. The most memorable was when my son was four. He decided to run away after becoming frustrated that we didn’t understand the rules to a game he had just invented and refused to explain. He never got as far as packing, because when I gave him a list of supplies to bring and suggested he should probably think of shelter, like the homes the little pigs make since he was heading out on his own in the world, he decided running away wasn’t the best idea. Mrs. Quimby’s overpacking of Ramona’s suitcase to make it so heavy she couldn’t get far was definitely my next plan of action if just talking to my son didn’t work. 

I discovered Beverly Cleary as an adult. I don’t know why, but I never ran across any of her books as a kid. While my kids listened in almost horrified silence to the creative antics of Ramona Quimby, I was bursting at the seams with laughter. My kids are mature enough now to distinguish their own emotions from those of fictional characters so they can now more openly appreciate the antics of characters like Ramona. 

I don’t think I could have appreciated these books to their full extent before becoming a parent. I have to thank my younger two kids for that. They team up for all sorts of adventures and unintended mischief. This month give yourself some D.E.A.R. time. Drop everything and read for thirty minutes, or even ten. Read aloud to a kid or read silently in quiet peace. If you have never given Beveryly Cleary a try, maybe pick up one of her books this month and see what characters you will meet. Just read!

Books of the Month – March 2026

April 1, 2026 By Maria

Better late than never! Just in case you missed anything, I put together a list of the books I wrote about in March. At the end of each month, I will write a list of all the books I wrote about during that month. The post titles will link back to the original blog posts.

Long Walks and Slipper Thievery – March 4, 2026

Happy Birthday, Miss Austen – March 14, 2026

Forest Warmth  – March 16, 2026

When a Story Blooms  – March 31, 2026

When a Story Blooms

March 31, 2026 By Maria

When spring brings warm weather, we always rush outside, throw open the windows, and shed our coats. My kids come home from school and dig through their drawers for summer weather t-shirts and shorts. The next day they will lament the return of cooler weather or rain. Spring weather remains a fickle surprise.

One thing spring is not fickle about, is flowers. Gardens will bloom. They may be late. They may be early. Whenever spring lets it happen, gardens bloom. One of my favorite things about spring is the surprise of finding new things growing as the snow melts. Little surprises greet us each day like the first spring crocus poking through the bare ground.  

Around the time I started putting my blog together, my husband surprised me by coming home with a picture book after grocery shopping. The book was Mossy by Jan Brett. He knew I liked Brett’s work and had not read this book. The kids thought he bought it for them, but I knew better. I thought it was incredibly sweet of him.

Mossy is a story about a little turtle on whose shell a small garden grows. Mossy loves her little garden and the surprises it brings from new flowers to wild strawberries until one day she sets eyes on a handsome turtle named Scoot. Sadly, Mossy is scooped away by Dr. Carolina and her niece, Tory. Dr. Carolina gives Mossy a beautiful and comfortable new home in her museum, but Mossy misses her real home and Scoot. After a question from Tory makes her consider things differently, Dr. Carolina gets a wonderful idea for how to share Mossy and her lovely garden with the world while also returning Mossy to the wild. Mossy is so happy when she reunites with Scoot. 

One thing that always makes me happy when I read Jan Brett’s books is looking for new surprises in the border art. Her books are full of fun detail hidden in border illustrations and Mossy is no exception.  There is so much to take in visually when I read Brett’s books with my kids, that we either read very slowly or go through the book a second time immediately after finishing just to look at the pictures.

When Mossy’s story finishes, Tory is grown up and Mossy is a happy old turtle. In the border illustrations, we can see Tory bringing her own children down the banks of the grove to see Mossy and her family by the pond. I love seeing Mossy and Scoot’s children with their own shell gardens just starting. 

Just like flowers we plant in the garden,  good stories can be planted in our hearts when we read them. The stories grow like little flowers in our souls. They shape us little by little – the people we spend time with, the places we frequent, the stories we read and watch. I love seeing small blooms and buds of good stories blossom in my kids. It might be the way my son uses a story to help relate to and understand something difficult in life. Or it might be the way my daughter says she feels happy just like a character in a book who’s overcome a difficulty. In whatever way they manifest, these flowering surprises are lovely to experience. 

Forest Warmth

March 16, 2026 By Maria

Of the many ways I keep warm in the cold, sweaters and hot tea are my favorites. The next favorite isn’t exactly logical, but it is delightful: cozy books. Books that make me feel warm inside like a comforting hug, fill this category.  

One of my favorite cozy picture books I read over the winter was Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl. I don’t know what it is exactly about this tiny “witch” who lives in a moss-covered tree stump in the woods, but reading this book feels like a toasty blanket and warm drink during a rainstorm. Hazel is a minute figure who goes about her simple life throughout the seasons in the forest. During the spring she brings an orphan egg home to tend. An owlet hatches from the egg and quickly grows too large for her small house and finally flies off to join other owls one evening. My kids were sad when this happened, but they were so happy for Otis’ surprise return before the end of the book. As the seasons progress, we learn more about Hazel and her simple and comforting life.

During the summer Hazel learns a lesson on relaxing, letting go, and being in the moment. When she finally decides to enjoy the day, wonders await her. In Autumn, Hazel plays detective and overcomes her fear while solving a mystery for her forest friends. When winter comes, Hazel works hard tending to the ill creatures of the forest. Thankfully, a friend is nearby when Hazel is in desperate need of care herself. 

Maybe it is the caring community Hazel is surrounded by that makes this book so warm and cozy. It could also be the watercolor illustrations and the tiny creatures that fill the pages. The book is imaginative and a pleasure to read. When we last borrowed it from the library, I read it to my kids first and then I read it again once or twice with a cup of tea in hand and a cozy blanket draped over me and a private smile on my face as I enjoyed the warmth of Hazel’s forest life.

Happy Birthday, Miss Austen

March 14, 2026 By Maria

Last Sunday a friend texted me a happy international women’s day message. That made me think, this is the perfect week to post this Jane Austen piece I have been working on. 

In typical fashion of this blog, my Jane Austen post is late, later than I planned at least. Originally, I wanted to post this on her 250th birthday anniversary, but life had other plans. Over the spring and summer of last year and especially this past December, people around the world have been celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th birthday anniversary. On December 16, 1775, Jane Austen was born. She was the youngest child and second daughter in the family of a countryside English clergyman. Jane grew up in a time of many restrictions on women, but in spite of her times she had a thorough education and became an accomplished author. 

My favorite room at the Morgan Library

In August, my husband and I traveled to New York City with a friend to visit the Morgan Library to see their Jane Austen display in honor of the author’s birthday anniversary. The Morgan Library is now a public museum, but it was once the private library of J. P. Morgan, one of New York City’s Gilded Age Elite. Years ago, I listened to a historical fiction novel, The Personal Library, about the life and work of Belle De Costa Greene, an African American woman who procured and managed Morgan’s library collection. It was spectacular seeing the architecture, art and books I had heard described in such detail in the novel. Our first visit to the Morgan Library was to see the Beatrix Potter show in 2024 (that was also an amazing experience).  

Ceiling details at the Morgan Library
Morgan Library’s Jane Austen show entrance

I thoroughly enjoyed my second trip to the library. People of course were talking as they wove their way through the one room installment of the Jane Austen show. However, there was a hushed reverence in the air that felt palpable. It was a wonderful experience seeing Jane Austen’s writing desk and personal letters. One item that made me smile was seeing the Austen family book of poetry. It contained poetry written by generations in the family. On the top of the page opened in the case was the line, “The Poetry of my ancestors I see collected here. How I wish my ancestors’ writing was more clear. Oxford 11/7/1886.” I learned many new facts about Austen I did not know before the visit like her love of music.  

Jane Austen’s desk

There was of course emphasis on her close relationship with her sister, Cassandra. My husband said that reading Cassandra’s letter after Jane’s death was heartbreaking. My friend commented that she couldn’t imagine having to wait weeks for a letter to arrive to communicate with her sister, as Jane and Cassandra had to do at times of separation during their lives.   

The trip was a very special Jane Austen experience. I especially loved seeing her writing desk and imagining her working on her book at that table. The trip made me think about her books again and why I love and appreciate them. I look forward to when I can share Jane Austen’s works with my kids, especially my daughter.  For now I share Jane Austen picture books with them and one special Jane Austen novella I own.

Did you know that as a teenager Jane Austen wrote a novella about a silly and naughty girl named after her older sister, Cassandra? I didn’t either until a friend sent it to me one birthday. It was especially fun to read because as my friend knew, my daughter has a literary/Jane Austen inspired name. The copy I have of The Beautifull Cassandra is illustrated with ink paintings. The simple silhouettes still convey the ridiculousness of the story and the characters’ behavior. It was also fun to have a Jane Austen book I could share with my daughter. 

That actually wasn’t my daughter’s first introduction to Jane Austen. When she was a baby, this same friend sent Little Miss Austen: Pride and Prejudice  by Jennifer Adams and illustrated by Alison Oliver. It was a counting board book that we read over and over when she was tiny. There is actually a series of these Jane Austen board books. They are perfect for the littlest Austen fans. 

Since my kids are too young to really read or appreciate Jane Austen’s wonderful novels, I read them books about the author herself. We had a family deep dive into Jane Austen over the winter. The first book we read was Jane: My First Jane Austen by Sanchez Vegara Isabe. This book focuses on how Jane had an unusual life and education for a woman at that time and tells a simplified version of Jane’s story which is perfect for young ones. My daughter definitely appreciated learning that Jane was the youngest in her family and that Jane had older brothers, just like she does. 

I feel it’s important to teach my kids, especially my daughter, about women from history like Jane Austen – women who stood out and did something different and started paving the way for the modern day woman. My daughter was indignant and shocked to learn that Austen’s first published books did not have her name listed, but instead only said “By a Lady.” They were so surprised that this was normal back then.  

My youngest two enjoyed A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice by Jasmine A. Stirling and illustrated by Vesper Stamper.  This book introduces literary trends during Jane Austen’s life and how she found those styles of books ridiculous. They were overly dramatic, sappy or filled with fainting women. My kids found this amusing. This book shows Jane’s sadness at the death of her father, and it focuses on her journey to find her written voice. It also shared how she had a gap in her writing, likely due to her grieving and moving. I love how the end of this book talks about Jane deciding to write again after so much sadness and how that sadness brought wisdom to her writing. It gives a message of resilience and hope and shows in a subtle way how her writing had also matured through life experience. As readers we don’t always think about how an author’s life shapes their writing and I appreciated how this book made me think and consider those things.

Another book that made me consider more about Jane’s life was The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography written by Janine Barchas and illustrated by Isabel Greenberg. My kids read graphic novels all the time. They didn’t try to read this one. I did try to get them interested, but they preferred having me read the Austen picture book biographies to them instead. I don’t usually read graphic novels, however, I saw an article about how it was newly published, and I thought it might be a fun way to get biographical information on Jane Austen. This graphic novel is broken into sections or rather different time periods of her life. It was a more detailed telling of her life than what we read in the picture books. I found it interesting how the book shared little side facts about the time period. For example, it was a common practice to rent piano fortes and a volcano erupted towards the end of Jane’s life that affected the weather for the rest of her years. The graphic novel was a fun way to learn Austen’s biography. 

Our very favorite Jane Austen picture book biography was Ordinary, Extraordinary: Jane Austen by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Qin Leng. We loved the illustrations! (Qin Leng is the same artist who did the pictures in A Day for Sand Castles, written about in one of my August 2025 blogs). This book begins with a stronger focus on Jane Austen’s relationship with her father and how he shared his library with Jane and her siblings. 

In this book we learned that Austen started to scribble her observations in the margins of books she read. I love the illustration of young Jane in a window seat on the stairway with books strewn all about her in piles. We learned that she wanted her writing to reflect real life. She wrote about the ordinary world in a most extraordinary way. There is a timeline at the end of the book with a list of her novels including blurbs and famous quotes. My younger son really liked going through this part and asked me to read all the blurbs and quotes out loud. Afterwards he asked if there was a movie about Northanger Abbey that he could watch. It was a cute moment and fun to share Austen’s stories with my kids. 


I enjoyed my personal deep dive into Jane Austen this past year, but I also absolutely loved sharing my love of Jane and her novels with my kids and friends. It was especially fun to read and watch videos about how the world was celebrating Jane this past year. Lego even made a special Jane Austen Lego set in honor of her birthday anniversary. There were special museum exhibits, parties, books published and even reenactment parties. I wonder what young Jane Austen would think to see people all over the world celebrating her birthday. Happy birthday, Miss Austen! 

Long Walks and Slipper Thievery

March 4, 2026 By Maria

When my husband first came home with the puppy it was unexpected and expected at the same time. I knew how much he wanted one and even though he went to look, I figured it was going to happen for real this time. When the kids came down the stairs to see my husband holding the puppy, they were very surprised and excited. My middle son even said, “This is like a book!” And it was until it wasn’t.

The puppy was fluffy and cute, but he also ate up all my time and literally anything he could get his teeth on. It was like a bad song on repeat: destruction, mess, puddle. . .over and over. It slowly got better with time. The puppy now, mainly understands that people are not chew toys and when he does steal my slipper it’s usually just to drop it nearby for attention instead of tearing out its innards. He actually likes and enjoys walks and he has learned the joys of playing fetch and cuddling. 

I think I took the longest to adjust to having the puppy out of everyone in our house. It was my first time with a pet, especially one that had to be trained. I was pretty annoyed at him most of the time. . .for a long time. I felt a bit like Mister Bud in Say Hello to Zorro!, a picture book by Carter Goodrich. This is a book my husband found many years ago when we were sorting through the closing sale shelves at a bookstore. Mister Bud is a dog very set in his ways, and schedule. He is very put out when his owners bring home another dog to live in his house. This new dog is Zorro. Mister Bud and Zorro clash heads and share mutual annoyance until one day they realize that they both have the same schedule. 

Well, the puppy and I don’t exactly have the same schedule, but we have created a mutually agreeable schedule when I am the only human at home and available for company. We both enjoy taking walks and now I have no excuse to avoid a walk several times a week (sometimes daily) even when I am feeling lazy (or when the climate is less than pleasant). It is actually really fun walking and exploring different walkable areas and neighborhoods near our home. I have noticed details and found hidden places I would never have noticed driving around in a car. Trekking out on these walks, especially through wooded areas, resonates strongly with my inner child. I feel like I’m going out on adventures and exploring like I used to as a kid in the backyard, but now with my furry sidekick and the benefit of adulthood I can explore further places beyond just excavating old bricks in the dirt behind my parents’ house. 

When I first tried to bring our puppy outside to explore, he was afraid of everything. If a car drove by, a door opened or a leaf fell down from a tree he was not only distracted, but frightened. Now he loves the outside and eagerly charges out the door. Chilly wind or very low temperatures are a couple of the few things that cause him to hesitate. Sometimes I am not sure if he is behaving better or if I am just better at observing and anticipating his behaviour thus eliminating potential messes. 

His behavior may be better, but he is still easily distracted and loves to play just like Lucky Pup in the The Adventures of Lucky Pup by Ken Brown. Lucky Pup lives on a farm with his friend the pig with whom he loves to get into messy misadventures. The poor farmer’s wife seems to live in constant annoyance with Lucky Pup’s trail of messes. Most of the disasters are caused by Lucky Pup looking for an escape from boredom. This is such true puppy behavior. Our puppy gets into the most trouble when he is bored. He starts with looking for someone to play with. If no one is available and his toys aren’t interesting at the moment and no one is offering food, it’s time to find something to destroy or possibly steal and then, of course, destroy. 

When playing, adventuring and mess making time is over, the puppy’s favorite thing to do, just like Lucky Pup, is to curl up into a warm round shape and nap. The fact that a good long walk can wear him out has probably saved our furniture from his beaver-like teeth. For now the puppy and I have a mutual understanding: I will walk him as much as I can and if he wants more pets, it is better to play fetch and not destroy my slippers.  As the 1964 song lyrics go – Now we’re together nearly every single day Singin’, “Do wah diddy diddy, dum diddy do” . We have learned to like each other and even enjoy one another’s company. I did not see this happening back when the early puppy days were a constant blur of mess, disaster and nipping. Now, just like it is for Mister Bud and Zorro, walks are more fun, dinner time is, shall we say, more interesting, and meet and greet time can be exceptionally sweet. 

Books of the Month – February 2026

March 2, 2026 By Maria

Better late than never! Just in case you missed anything, I put together a list of the books I wrote about in February. At the end of each month, I will write a list of all the books I wrote about during that month. The post titles will link back to the original blog posts.

Poetic Snow and Frozen Sidewalks – February 5, 3026

Happy Chinese New Year! – February 14, 2026

Always Winter – February 16, 2026

The Perseverance of Baking – February 27, 2026

The Perseverance of Baking

February 27, 2026 by Maria

On a busy Monday afternoon, I picked my younger two kids up from school and trekked out on a short list of errands with them in tow. They were not thrilled to say the least, however, after our first stop at the library they were pretty quiet because their noses were in books the rest of the time, which impressed the post office worker. She had a delighted smile as she watched them read while waiting in line. 

While at the library earlier, all three of us were delighted to find a new Bakery Dragon book, The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake, on the library’s shelf. (In 2024 I wrote about the first Ember book by Devin Elle Kurtz in a blog post). We were happy to see the return of Ember, the bread baking dragon, and his floury adventures. I read the book with my kids that night when we finally settled down on the couch for a few minutes after pajamas and teeth, shortly before bed. 

In the story, a small visitor arrives at the bakery with the special request that Ember bake a birthday cake for the fairy queen. Ember quickly learns that a birthday cake is not a bread or a roll or scrumptious flatbread drizzled in honey. His fairy companion is quick to shoot down all of Ember’s delicious to hilariously odious attempts to fulfill her request until they visit the local library for just the right book: a cook book. Armed with a recipe, Ember bakes a beautiful cake and goes on to learn how to make more confectious wonders. My kids enjoyed the Turnip fairy’s constant frustration with Ember’s not-a-cake cakes. Just like the first book, the illustrations are cute and the breads and (most of) the “not-a-cake” concoctions look scrumptious! 

Besides enjoying the scrumptiously illustrated breads, I enjoyed going back and reading the notes left around the bakery by Ember and Bea and the titles of books on the town’s library shelves. The vegetable fairies live in pumpkin and gourd houses.This was something my daughter and I found exceptionally cute! I like that Ember isn’t defeated by his lack of cake knowledge. He perseveres and overcomes his knowledge lacking problems with self education and experimentation. 

This book surprisingly provided us with an opening to talk about perseverance and the importance of not giving up. If a dragon can learn not only to bake bread but cake too, then maybe we can try learning a new skill as well. Perseverance isn’t always easy. We need all the encouragement we can get to keep going. 

Always Winter

February 16, 2026 By Maria

It feels like the White Witch from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia has descended upon our town. We have had a consistent layer of snow and ice everywhere for well over two weeks now. It’s still mostly beautiful with the occasional cluster of gray dirty snow. We even had some more snow last night – a dusting over our “forever snow.” I love the blanket of white, but not the icy walking conditions and I definitely do not like driving or parking on streets narrowed by accumulated snow and ice along the edges. 

Due to this accumulation of snow at our doors and my increasing impatience with it, I decided to pull a couple of picture books from our shelf with lovely illustrations of snow. If I keep reminding myself of the snow’s unique charm, I will hopefully be more willing to deal with its inconveniences. 

A little girl wishes for the inconvenience of snow to keep her pilot mother home in Before Morning by Joyce Sidman. This book is mainly told in pictures with very little text. The text that is included is the little girl’s wish, almost a prayer for the snowstorm to come and keep her mother home. The last lines of the book are my favorite: “Make it slow and delightful and white.”  Beth Krommes’ art is perfect for the snow-covered town and park. Those illustrations are some of the most beautiful pictures in this book, but my very favorite is at the end; it shows snow angels made in the freshly fallen snow near the angel statue in the park. 

My favorite part about snow is the cozy feeling it brings. I share the same sentiments with Beth Krommes as stated in the illustrator’s blurb on the back jacket cover. It says she often wishes to be “snowed in with her family, a good book, and a fire in the woodstove.” I love the slow quiet snow brings. I love it when plans and school can be cancelled for a day and we all get to just be together like the family in this book. The snow creates a brief but appreciated sanctuary for everyone to huddle in, for a fleeting moment, and get a break from the busyness of everyday life. 

Snow creates a brief, still sanctuary for contemplative thought in Fox’s Dream by Tejima. This book tells the story of a lone fox awaking in a moonlit snow- and ice-covered forest. On his slow meander through the trees the fox sees a single hare, but it disappears just as quickly with a leap through a clearing. The hare jumping with the dark sky backdrop makes a dramatic two page spread in the book. I love the creative use of line, texture and shadow in the illustrations. As the fox wanders, he deals with feelings of loneliness and reflects on his time as a cub, the past closeness of his family, and the warmth of spring and summer. As the fox heads back home through the woods, he meets another fox, a vixen. They share a joyful greeting and the internal knowledge that spring will come again. 

Beautifully illustrated books always fill me with a special joy. Both these books have lovely woodblock or wood engraving like art. I love it when books contain a note about how the illustrations were made or even what kind of media the artist used. Unfortunately these two books do not contain any such note about the art. That fact does not take away from their beauty. 

I know that when our eternal icy snow finally melts away, I will miss its beauty, especially if it is followed by mud. When that happens, I know I will be just like the girl in Joyce Sidman’s book. I will wish to, “make it slow and delightful and white.”

Happy Chinese New Year!

February 14, 2026 By Maria

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong hei fat choy! The Cantonese lunar new year greeting means, “May you be happy and prosperous.” 

This year will be the year of the Horse

Chinese Lunar New Year begins on February 17th this year. Celebrations start with the new moon. Our Lunar New Year celebrations have changed and evolved over the years, but a meal with family is always at the center. In many ways the core of Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival are very similar (I have written about the Mid-Autumn Festival in previous blog posts). Both holidays focus on family and togetherness and usually center on sharing a meal. Lunar New Year has a stronger focus on fortune and prosperity and good will for the new year. Many traditions for Lunar New Year also include driving away evil spirits and bad fortune and bringing in good fortune.    

A couple of years ago, my mom and I put together a Lunar New Year display at the local library. I did a bit of research about how other Asian cultures celebrate the new year. It was fun and enlightening to learn the similarities and differences between new year celebrations. One difference was the amount of time spent celebrating. While China celebrates for 15 days, South Korea and Vietnam end their celebrations at 3 days. In Vietnam the Lunar New Year is called Tết and in South Korea it is called Seollal. Overall most traditions center around family and sharing good food and wishes of fortune.

Our family usually always has a special dinner with relatives. While the Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries throughout Asia, some traditions are similar. For example Chinese, South Koreans and Vietnamese all give out money envelopes, wear traditional clothes, and share a special meal with family. Outside of internet searches, I learned about various Lunar new year traditions from talking to friends and of course picture books.  

The first author I always go to for Asian holiday books is the Asian American author, Grace Lin. Her book, Bringing in the New Year is a simple explanation of Chinese New Year celebrations as a young girl and her sisters prepare for the new year. The girls get haircuts, help make traditional foods and put on qipao dresses. Grace Lin even has activity ideas and patterns for cutouts on her website. Paper cutouts are a common way to decorate during Chinese New Year. 

Happy Chinese New Year! by Demi is a small book that goes through traditions around Chinese New Year. Demi is an American author who has retold and illustrated many Chinese fairytales and fables that were shared with by her husband when he told her about his youth in China. Our favorite of her books is probably The Empty Pot. Happy Chinese New Year! is full of Demi’s delightful illustrations of small children in colorful robes running around preparing for and celebrating the New Year. She even includes a list of dishes and what they signify. I also like how there is a part about visiting relatives and about the traditional candy tray brought on these visits. 

One book we usually revisit each year at the library is The Great Race written by David Bouchard and illustrated by Zhong-Yang Huang. This is a gorgeous retelling of the myth behind the Chinese zodiac. This book begins with a grandmother helping her granddaughter arrange cutouts of the zodiac animals and then telling her the story of the race to explain the order that the animals are placed in. The zodiac is important for the new year because each year represents an animal on the twelve-part zodiac calendar. The illustrations in this book are beautiful. The jacket note describes Huang’s style as a melding of Western influences with traditional Chinese painting and that description fits well. My kids are all very interested in the zodiac and learning about their own zodiac animals (your zodiac animal is the animal from the year in which you are born). For a while my daughter would introduce herself to kids at the playground and then follow it up with, “I’m a monkey for the Chinese zodiac! What’s your animal?” There were many confused children to say the least. (In the past my kids have enjoyed a fun Sagwa episode about the great zodiac race. Sagwa was a kid’s PBS show in the early 2000’s, based on Amy Tan’s picture book Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat.) 

While there is a Korean version of the zodiac story it is not mentioned in Tomorrow is New Year’s Day: Seollal, a Korean Celebration of the Lunar New Year by Aram Kim. The book is a cute story about a girl preparing to share Korean Lunar New Year celebrations with her class. The girl and her mother show the class traditional dress (Hanbok) games and other new year’s traditions until her dad and brother arrive. Unfortunately, her brother does not want to wear his hanbok, but puts it on with encouragement from the other children. They all prepare tteokguk (a special new year’s rice cake soup). Traditionally, it is said that you become one year older after eating your soup. The book ends with a glossary about the Korean terms and traditions mentioned in the text. The glossary also includes pronunciation guides which are a nice bonus. 

The next book I chose also teaches a lot of lunar new year traditions. It is PoPo’s Lucky Chinese New Year written by Virginia Loh-Hagan and illustrated by Renné Benoit. The story is about a little girl learning about Chinese New Year traditions from her Pópo (grandma). This book made me laugh several times as I read it outloud. The antics of the little girl in the story are quite cute. Every time she tries to get out of a New Year’s Eve chore her Pópo tells her she can’t put it off until the next day because then all the luck will be lost. The little girl then does double hard work to get even more luck.  When told to wash her hair to get more luck on new year, she washes her hair three times, but her baby brother’s only one time, justifying that she needs more luck since she’s older.  This book had a lot of great information tucked into the story, like the tradition of hanging the Fú (good luck) sign upside down (“Upside down” sounds a bit like the word “arrived” so when you hang the character Fú 福 upside down it is a play on words meaning luck or fortune has arrived). When the little girl learns that the number four is unlucky, she is so worried about her baby brother only having four baby teeth that she draws an extra tooth and attempts to tape it on so he won’t get bad luck. It’s nice to see her start to get along better with her “annoying” baby brother by the end. There is also a craft guide at the end of the book. 

The next book is about another girl in a very different family helping her family prepare for the new year. Dumpling Soup by Jama Kim Rattigan and illustrated by Lilian Hsu-Flanders is interesting because it gives a different perspective of lunar new year celebrations. The author is a third generation Korean-American, born and raised in Hawaii. The girl in this story named, Marisa, is preparing to celebrate Lunar new year with her family (her family is Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian and Haole [Hawaiian for Caucasian]). She helps her grandma make new year’s dumplings. All the aunties get together bustling in the kitchen to help prepare the dumplings. It is a family event. I love seeing how the family in this book blends all their different cultures together in their new year’s traditions. 

The Chinese New Year Tree


Our family has created our own traditions out of our blended cultures over the years. We usually always have a special dinner with family or friends to celebrate the lunar new year, we read lunar new year books, and do crafts. One year the Christmas tree was undecorated, but still up at Chinese New Year so I used paper clips and hung red envelopes on it as our Chinese New Year tree. We definitely had fun decorating that year! Sometimes the kids and I make our own decorations for the new year. This is always fun. When the kids were smaller, they would even wear traditional clothes for our new year’s dinner. Occasionally at other times in the year, they would find their new year’s outfits, put them on, and just go around the house in brocade jackets and pants all day. It was quite cute and made one zoom call in 2020 very memorable. How do you celebrate the lunar new year? Gong hei fat choy!