Happy Chinese New Year! Alex's Good Fortune by Benson Shum

What's better than the first day of a week of special days? Inviting your best friend along for the fun?

It's the first day of the celebration, and Alex gets up early to invite her friend Ethan to join her family in the first day of Chinese New Year. Wearing her red shirt and headband, Alex pulls Ethan along to her house, where they join the parade, making their big paper dragon twist and bounce and dance in the parade to bring good luck to everyone there. Drums boom, cymbals crash, and firecrackers pop! And then the two race back to Alex's house, where their first job is to help Alex's grandmother shape dumplings to steam and fry up for the family feast that night.

FOLD AND PINCH! FOLD AND PINCH!

Everything should be spotless for the New Year's celebration, so Ethan pitches in to help Alex clean her room, and he is rewarded when Alex's Aunt Lin gives them both red envelopes with the traditional Lucky Money inside.

And then it's time for the New Year's feast, with special foods. There are noodles for long life and health, dumplings for wealth, and fish for prosperity, and a big platter of candied fruit and candy to make the new year sweet.

ALEX SERVES THE TEA. ETHAN CARRIES IN THE RICE.

And at last it is the night of the lantern festival with beautiful lanterns hanging from the trees to bring everyone a bright new year.

"THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR HOLIDAY WITH ME," SAID ETHAN. "XIN NIAN KUDI LE!"

This year, the Year of the Ox, begins on February 12--a good day to wear red, wish everyone a happy, healthy and wealthy year, and perhaps dance with a dragon and have some delicious Chinese dumplings for dinner. Benson Shum's new Alex's Good Fortune (Penguin/Random House, 2020) has two lively friends takes young readers through much of the fun and customs of the season. Add a readaloud story, Sam and the Lucky Money along with some fortune cookies for story-time snacks. Find more books about that other February holiday here.

Someone's Been Eating My Congee? Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim

Goldy Luck was born in the Year of the Dragon.

"This child will bring us luck!" said her mother.

Her father pointed out that her face was as round as a gold coin.

"She'll bring great wealth!" he said.

But Goldy wasn't lucky. She lost her Grandmother's New Year's gift and her piggy bank was always empty.

One Chinese New Year's Day, Goldy's mom woke her up early to take the greeting, Kung Hei Fat Choy, to their neighbors, the Chan's, with a plate of hot turnip cakes to share with Little Chan.

"But Ma Ma, I am still sleepy, and I'm SO hungry," Goldy moaned.

"Be nice, or you'll have bad luck," her mom warned.

Goldy trudged next door with the turnip cakes. When her knock gets no answer, she pushes against the door and stumbles, spilling the warm turnip cakes all over the floor. Slumping off into the kitchen to find a broom, she notices three bowls of congee waiting on the table. She was still hungry, so she tried the big bowl. Way too watery! The medium bowl was lumpy, But the little bowl was delicious and all gone before Goldy knew it. Now she was not hungry, but she was still sleepy.

She tried Papa Chan's big massage chair.

Something hard steamrollered her back! OUCH!

Mama Chan's chair made Goldy feel like a stuffed pork bun, and apparently Little Chan's chair was too rickety, since one of the rockers cracks! So far, Goldy's luck is all bad!

But still sleepy, she heads for the bedroom, where she finds Papa Chan's big bed feels like a stale almond cake.

The electric bed folds her up like a dumpling!

And that's how the returning Chan family finally found Goldy Luck sound asleep in Little Chan's cozy futon!

But all's well that ends with New Year's luck after all, when Goldy Luck takes her own warm breakfast bowl of congee over for Little Chan and together they make turnip cakes for all, in Natasha Yim's Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Charlesbridge Publishing), a jolly fractured fairy tale which introduces Chinese New Year to the picture book set with her version of the oft-parodied Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It's always good luck when good neighbors get together with a Kung Hei Fat Choy for everyone.
(The author appends a recipe for turnip cakes--which also contain shrimp and sausage.)

Home for the Holidays: A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Quong

PAPA BUILDS BIG HOUSES IN FARAWAY PLACES.

HE COMES HOME ONLY ONCE EACH YEAR, DURING CHINA'S NEW YEAR.

TODAY MAMA AND I WAKE UP REALLY EARLY BECAUSE...

PAPA IS HOME.

At first the child is frightened by his newly returned father, big and unfamiliar in his beard and bushy hair. But after a shave and haircut, he is Papa again. He pitches in to make the holiday treat, sticky rice balls, and hides a coin inside one of them. That night the little one falls asleep safe and secure, between her two quietly whispering parents. And in the morning, there are rice balls for breakfast, and in one of her sticky balls she finds the coin, the good luck coin that brings fortune all year.

"PUT IT IN YOUR POCKET QUICK, MAOMAO," SAYS PAPA, "SO THAT THE GOOD LUCK WON'T ESCAPE!"

Special activities fill the day--a snowball fight with her friends, helping Papa make repairs, even up on the forbidden roof, where she sees the approaching Dragon Parade. Down to the street the two run, and on Papa's tall shoulders, she sees the New Year's dragon dance past, down her own street. Papa dresses Maomao in the new jacket he has brought and the family goes out to call upon friends and family. It is a wonderful day, until she discovers that her coin is missing from her pocket. Maomao is disconsolate, until suddenly, her fortune returns:

I BAWL, BUT AS I TAKE OFF MY JACKET, CLINK!

IT'S THE COIN!

But the next morning it is again time for Papa to leave for the faraway land where he works. Maomao tries to be brave, and when it is time for him to leave, she reaches in her pocket.

I PUT THE COIN, ALL WARM FROM BEING IN MY HAND, IN
PAPA'S PALM.

"HERE, TAKE THIS, PAPA. NEXT TIME YOU ARE BACK, WE CAN HIDE IT IN
THE RICE BALLS AGAIN."

It is a covenant meant to be kept in Yu Li-Quong's simple but poignant story of Chinese New Year, A New Year's Reunion: A Chinese Story (Candlewick, 2011), one that points up the real meaning of family holiday traditions. Yu's art uses full-page color and evocative, textless double-page spreads to press home his theme in this setting of a stoic but devoted family.

Yu's book was named one of the ten best illustrated books of 2011 by the New York Times. The entire list, including many titles reviewed here can be seen by following this link.