Chinese-American Books for Kids

http://www.redroom.com/video/winner-cala-best-childrens-book-award-2008

Hi, this book just garnered the Best Children's Book Award from the Chinese American Librarians Associations. Please watch the above video of the art. I sound like an 8 year-old but the filming is beautiful.

In light of the thousands children killed in the Sichuan Earthquake, this book reflects the love and fear of parents--their wish that their children come home to them safely.

It's a fine video and your book is beautiful! My kids are grown, so I don't browse the picture-book section any more, but now I see I'm missing some great things like your book. Your story is meaningful and the artwork vibrant with such rich, dark colors---what a relief from the too-cutesy, too-pastel tendency in many children's books. My kids always liked books with sophisticated artwork (they still do).

Thanks for opening this topic "Chinese-American Books for Kids." I would like to ask people to comment on what "Chinese-American Books (for Kids)" means to them.

For example, are they books (1) authored by Chinese-Americans (2) intended for a Chinese-American audience (3) dealing with themes of Chinese-American life (4) about mixed marriages or children of Chinese+American parents?

For me, "Chinese-American Books" means any and all of the above, but I wonder what others think, and whether it makes a difference.

I am looking for book recommendations for my 2.5 year-old daughter adopted from China when she was almost 1 year-old.

My Chinese is poor so I'm looking for bilingual (English/Mandarin) books with Pinyin so I can pronounce the Chinese correctly.

English is my daughter's dominate language but we are trying to preserve/develop her Chinese.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

- nello

(Writing this from my daughter's LibraryThing account.)

arfucchesi--
Try www.betterchinese.com

They have a set of several dozen little books, roughly 6" x 6". The title is "My First Chinse Words."

You should consider picture book dictionaries. For that age, point and name is still a fun activity and the picture books typically have English, Chinese characters, and pinyin. I've been looking for one to recommend to you, but all of ours use zhuyin.

edited to add The reason I suggest point and name is that vocabulary is probably the number one thing that kids need. Chinese grammar, while not the same as English, is similar enough to not be a big problem.