Long Is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children

I love this book. I really do.

Although it was written primarily for Western children learning Chinese and the concept of Chinese characters, it is ideal for anybody who is seriously interested in learning Chinese. The illustrations are well drawn and appropriate. The characters are broken down by stroke order so that the beginner can learn the rhythm and flow of Chinese writing.

The calligraphy is the best part of the book because readers can learn to write the characters in the proper stroke order. The ancient characters paired alongside the current characters help readers develop a broader sense of history and this in turn helps language and reading comprehension in Chinese. I like the clever little puzzle at the end of the book as show more well.

What really impressed me was the presentation of Chinese, which to Westerners can be considered a metaphoric language. The characters for "television," for example are the 2 characters (compound word) for "electricity" and "vision," therefore "electric vision" or television. Volcano is "fire + mountain" and train is "fire + cart." Readers also learn what slight alterations of characters, e.g. a character presented 3 times that creates a different word with a different meaning. The character for sun written 3 times has an entirely different meaning. I love this book and it has been an excellent key to learning Chinese. show less

Explains how Chinese writing developed and demonstrates how to write seventy-five Chinese characters, using detailed instructions and examples.