A New Year's Reunion: A Chinese Story

This book builds empathy and understanding for people who live different lives to your own. Many children in the USA do not understand that in many places, a parent leaves home and ravels a long way away to find work and that parents stays there a long time before they return. They can be gone for a season or the entire year. In this story the child only sees her father for Chinese New Years. It gets kids thinking and maybe even thankful for their own circumstances.

Beautiful story & illustration. Very colorful and big pictures, not too detailed that toddlers will get lost in too many things depicted in the pages. Flattering appearances of Asian faces as well, not exaggerated slit eyes or flat nose but realistic Asian faces. Very heart warming and beautiful story of one family told through the central character, of an adorable toddler girl. Story is not cliche and enough texts for toddlers.

Great book about CHinese New Year!

Very touching story! Had one already and bought an extra copy for my daughter's daycare. Her teachers love it. It has been circulating from classroom to classroom. This is one of the best Chinese children's book ever!

This was a great Chinese New Year book for little kids. The story is simple but it gives great insight on the role of New Year in modern China. Also, the illustrations are beautiful. I highly recommend this book.

I really enjoyed reading this story to my children. My older ones can read it alone but it is a great story to start a conversation on how people live differently in other countries.

Great book purchased for my class unit on Christmas around the world.

We read this book as part of our Chinese New Year Unit Study. And it was by far the best book we read! This book not only gives young readers a sense of what Chinese New Year is like but just as importantly what Chinese culture is like. From the first page where her dad is arriving after having worked out of the country for the year it began to spark questions and conversations with my 5-year-old. A beautiful read that I highly recommend!Hannah Carmona Dias, Author

This is a beautifully illustrated and very well written book. It's incredibly moving--the little girl in the book Maomao only sees her father (a migrant worker) once a year during Chinese New Year's. It's not only the story of a "new year's reunion" but (in a children's book no less!) raises themes of the strength of familial bonds, parental love, loss, 21st century migration. Migration separates so many families in China, and here is one little book that shows in a very understated way how heartbreaking it can be. A very gentle way to introduce your child to not just a different culture but to talk about the larger political forces of that country.The illustrations are beautiful as well! I can't recommend it enough--my children love this book.

I really appreciate the depth of this book. It talks about the realities of many migrant workers in China and also Chinese New Year celebrations. Most CNY books just present the food and celebrations and have no depth in terms of real lives, thoughts, and feelings of people. I wish there were more books like this. Appropriate for toddlers to grade 3. You can speak about the themes in many different ways for different ages.

Super good book!