A Very Sweet Year: The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Grace Lin's semi-autobiographical novel The Year of the Dog introduces us to a young Taiwanese-American girl who is just becoming aware of who she is--Pacy to her foreign-born parents at home, Grace to her classmates at school.

But despite her dual identity, Grace begins the year content within her family and in the wider world of her elementary school. The novel opens with the wonderfully sensual descriptions of a Chinese New Year feast in preparation as Grace asks what it means for the new year to be "The Year of the Dog."

"They say the Year of the Dog is the year for friends and family. But there's more to it than that. The Year of the Dog is also for thinking. Since dogs are also honest and sincere, it's a good year to find yourself," Mom said.

"Find myself? But I'm not lost," little sister Ki-Ki said.

We all laughed and Mom tried to explain.

"No," she said. "Finding yourself means deciding what your values are, what you want to do--that kind of thing."

And Grace takes the meaning of the year to heart. After a funny mix-up by the lunchroom lady, who thinks Grace is the new girl at school, she meets Melody, the only other Asian girl in her school and the two compare their common Taiwanese heritage and the differences between their mothers. Grace's mom makes all the Taiwanese dishes the traditional way, while Melody's mom sticks to strictly low-fat versions. Contrarily, Melody has learned to speak Chinese at home, but Grace's family speaks mostly English.

The girls become best friends, cooperating on a science project and sleeping over at each other's houses. Grace has her first experience with a sort of benevolent prejudice when friend Becky points out that Grace can't be Dorothy in the class play of The Wizard of Oz because "Dorothy isn't Chinese." Grace's comfortable world seems to stop, and she decides not to try out for the part and worries if she can even play a Chinese munchkin.

"How come Chinese people are never important?" she asks Melody. "You never see a Chinese person in the movies or in a play or in a book. No one Chinese is important."

When Melody insists on searching the library and comes up with The Five Chinese Brothers, to refute her argument, Grace insists that she wants a real Chinese person book, and decides she'll have to write one herself for the national children's book contest.

However, when Grace goes with Melody to the Taiwanese-American Conference, she learns that bias is not limited to white Americans when a girl taunts her because she doesn't speak and write Taiwanese.

"You're a Twinkie! My brother said Chinese people who are Americanized are Twinkies. Yellow on the outside, but white on the inside!" she says.

As the Year of the Dog passes, Grace talks openly with her mother and with her teachers about her feelings, and her mother's stories of her own childhood and her teacher's sensible advice help her to see herself as a unique individual, Chinese and American, Pacy and Grace, one complete person. When her book wins a national prize, Grace has a coming-of-age realization. "I found myself. I'm going to make books when I grow up," she tells everyone.

Lin's slim, simply written story of a fourth grader who begins working out her place in the world is, like the fictional Grace's favorite, B Is for Betsy, a comforting story of the mistakes and successes which mark the steps any child takes in growing up. Seen from the special outlook of a second-generation Asian immigrant child, it is a recommended read for all children. The Year of the Dog is a 2007 ALA Notable Book.

The Garden That Keeps On Giving! The Ugly Garden by Grace Lin

IN THE SPRING I HELPED MY MOTHER START OUR GARDEN. IT WAS HARD WORK.

WHEN WE STOPPED TO REST, I SAW THAT THE NEIGHBORS WERE STARTING THEIR GARDENS, TOO.

But the neighbors get their gardens dug faster because they use big shovels. Ours are small.

And when the neighbors' seeds sprout, green leaves begin to show right away. When ours came up, the green things look like grass blades!

Soon the neighbors' gardens are beginning to bloom--with big flowers of all kinds of bright colors. They smell so fragrant that the bees buzz all around them.

OUR GARDEN WAS ALL DARK AND UGLY. I SAW ONLY BLACK AND GREEN-PURPLE VINES AND WRINKLED LEAVES. OUR VEGETABLES WERE BUMPY.

SOME WERE JUST PLAIN ICKY!

It's very sad.

But one day we pick our vegetables, and Mom works hard, peeling,  chopping, and dropping a mixture of them into a really big pot of water on the stove.

And it's not long before a delicious aroma is drifting out of the kitchen, all the way into the neighbors' yards. The neighbors begin to follow their noses to the kitchen door, bringing bunches of beautiful flowers to trade for some  of the soup. They all sit down and have an ugly vegetable soup party!

IT WAS THE BEST DINNER EVER!

It takes all kinds to make a world and all kinds of gardens to make people happy, in the award-winning Grace Lin's spring tale of two kinds of gardens, The Ugly Vegetables (Charlesbridge Books). Author-illustrator Lin's cheery story of garden envy is resolved in appreciation for all that the good earth gives us, edible and beautiful. Grace Lin is also the author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

Night Needs Light, Too! A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin

Why does the moon change its shape?

LITTLE STAR'S MAMA LAID THE BIG MOONCAKE ONTO THE SKY TO COOL.

"NOW, LITTLE STAR, CAN YOU REMEMBER NOT TO TOUCH THIS MOONCAKE UNTIL I TELL YOU TO?"

Little Star nods, and she does remember what Mama said--for a while, as she gets ready to climb into bed with her bunny toy. But after a few hours she wakes up. The first thing she sees is the mooncake so near in the sky. It looks so delicious.

WOULD HER MAMA NOTICE IF SHE TOOK JUST A TINY NIBBLE?

Savvy young readers will know where this literary folk tale is going, as night after night, Little Star stealthily nibbles away at the mooncake and it grows smaller and smaller. Ah, but the trail of crumbs leading to Little Star's bed grows bigger and bigger--until one night, when Mama goes to look for her mooncake, it is not there. The sky is empty--and so dark! The culprit is not hard to find.

"MAMA, LET'S GO BAKE ANOTHER ONE!"

And they do, in Grace Lin's acclaimed A Big Mooncake for Little Star (Little, Brown and Company, 2018). There are many folktales about the moon's always changing shape. Some stories say that a dark dragon takes big bites out of the moon nightly, but Lin's version is a far more benevolent origin tale of the phases of the moon, with mother and child making a big new mooncake to light the sky, with a new way to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, which author-illustrator Lin says is her favorite holiday. Lin's lovely illustrations earned her the Caldecott Honor Award, and is the perfect companion book to her A Big Bed for Little Snow (see review here).

Says Publishers Weekly, "Lin successfully combines three distinctive and memorable elements: a fable that avoids seeming contrived, a vision of a mother and child living in cozy harmony, and a night kitchen of Sendakian proportions."

Happy Chinese New Year: The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin

Few new books get hailed as the next series in the classic tradition of Betsy-Tacy or "B" Is for Betsy , but Grace Lin's first novel, the The Year of the Dog, has been so described. Her sequel--just published in time for the beginning of the Chinese New Year celebration on February 7--is receiving equal kudos. Ironically, just as 2007 on the Gregorian calendar is promising to be a year of political change, the Chinese calendar cycle brings us around to the year of the rat, the symbol of change and new beginnings.

For Pacy, heroine of Grace Lin's series, the new year brings change, both good and bad. Her best friend Melody, the only other Chinese-American in her upstate New York school, is moving to California. Pacy comes up against a bit more prejudice and turns even more to writing as an outlet for her feelings. Then a new Chinese child appears at her school, bringing new questions of loyalty and personal identity. For Pacy, like most middle graders, this new year is a year of both uncertainty and growing understanding of the world into which she is born. Read how Pacy handles unwanted changes and new beginnings in The Year of the Rat.

For my review of The Year of the Dog, see my post of January 1, 2008, here.

Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same by Grace Lin

LING AND TING ARE TWINS. THEY HAVE THE SAME BROWN EYES.

THEY HAVE THE SAME PINK CHEEKS.

THEY HAVE THE SAME HAPPY SMILES.

PEOPLE SEE THEM AND THEY SAY "YOU TWO ARE EXACTLY ALIKE.'

"WE ARE NOT EXACTLY THE SAME," LING SAYS.

TING LAUGHS BECAUSE SHE IS THINKING THE SAME THING.

Their differences must all be on the inside, until the identical twins go to get their identical haircuts. Ling sIts perfectly still and gets a perfect haircut with perfect straight bangs.

Ting, however, can't sit still. She fidgets with her feet and hands. And when the tiny trimmings from her bangs hit her nose, she sneezes. With that sneeze, the startled barber's shears cut a big uneven whack out of hers.

Now the twins are not exactly alike anymore!

In the six short chapters of her 2011 Theodore Seuss Geisel-Award-winning beginning reader, Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! (Little, Brown, 2010) Grace Lin shows all the ways Ling and Ting are not alike. In one chapter," Ling just cannot manage to eat with chopsticks; Ting suggests that she could use her own deftly welded chopsticks to feed her sister, but Ling has a better idea--a fork! Ting prefers fairy tale books from the library, but Ling only wants nonfiction books about dogs. And in doing card tricks, both girls strike out as Ting can't find the right card for her card trick, but by the time she realizes she's done the trick wrong, Ling has forgotten the card she's supposed to remember anyway.

In the chapter titled "Making Dumplings," the girls follow the exact same steps, but Ting overstuffs her dumplings so that they come out all lumpy-bumpy compared to Ling's perfect smooth ones. But that difference suits Ting just fine:

"YOUR DUMPLINGS ARE DUMP-LINGS," SHE SAYS. "MINE ARE DUMP-TINGS!"

Viva la difference! in Lin's engaging little essay on winning at twindom. With starred reviews from both Booklist and School Library Journal and a Geisel honor award for one of the best easy readers of the year, Lin's kickoff entry for what should be a winning twin series is like getting two for the price of one for emergent readers.

A Winter's Tale: A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin

When winter began, Little Snow's mommy made a big new bed just for him.

"Now you have warm feathers to sleep on," Mommy said."

"Remember, Little Snow, this bed is for sleeping, not for jumping."

JUMPING?

That motherly suggestion is heeded about as much as the famous folkloric advice not to put beans up your nose!

As soon as Mommy goes away, Little Snow jumps. And Jumps. And JUMPS on his bed!

And in the morning when he doesn't hear Mommy stirring, he jumps some more!

Tiny feathers squeezed out of his bed and fluttered down.

This jumping goes on secretly. Mommy never catches him at it, until--

Once, Little Snow jumped so high and landed so hard, he made a rip in his bed!

What a lot of feathers fell that day!

Snowy feathers fill the floor of Little Snow's room, and feathery snow fills the landscape outside.

Did Little Snow do all that? What a powerful jumper Mommy's boy must be. The jig is up with Little Snow's bed, in Grace Lin's latest, A Big Bed for Little Snow (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). As in her lovingly illustrated companion book to Lin's Caldecott Honor Book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, Lin combines beautifully realistic illustrations with a fantasy-tinged bedtime story of a first snow--inside and out. This new one is a tender story of motherly love and a mischievous boy that warms the heart as the snow falls outside his bedroom window. Now it's time to jump in real snow as Mommy sews a new feather bed, and all's well that ends at last with a laugh, inside and out.

"A wondrous, wintry read." says Horn Book's starred review.

Salute Chinese New Year with...Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman

ONE DAY I GOT A BOX IN THE MAIL. IT HAD SEVEN FORTUNE COOKIES IN IT.

ON SUNDAY MY FORTUNE SAID "TODAY YOU WILL LOSE SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED."

A little girl's mysterious gift box turns out to have a week's worth of surprises. On Sunday, as predicted, she loses a baby tooth, which "magically" morphs into tooth fairy money under her pillow. When Monday's fortune likens money to the wind, she takes the hint and spends the stash on a kite, which, as promised in the next day's fortune, is lost... in the top branches of a tree.

But not to worry! Her next fortune cookie counsels that she look on the bright side of bad luck, and true to prediction, in the lower branches of the kite-stealing tree the girl finds just what she really wants--a cat. But then the cat disappears. Following next day's fortune, the girl reveals her sadness to anyone who will listen, but all the next day's cookie suggests is the that fortune comes to those who wait for it. And finally the seventh fortune cookie's promise of a lucky day is fulfilled: she finds her missing cat--hidden away with a litter of newborn kittens which she aptly names after the days of the week, one for each of the seven fortunes.

Albert Bitterman's Fortune Cookies (Beach Lane, 2011) is tasty way to kick off the fifteen days of Chinese New Year celebration, with a clever "toy and movable book" with well-designed pull tabs that slide out to reveal each day's fortune. The two-time Caldecott-winning Chris Raschka's signature black-line and pastel art style here provides the perfect illustrations for this light but satisfying little story. Says Publishers Weekly, "A tidy, perfectly paced story with subtle grace and a kernel of wisdom."

In case you haven't noticed, the Great Recession has resulted in a dearth of new books on the subjects of the less celebrated holidays and specially observed weeks and months. Fortunately, American publishers still have some tasty cookies in their backlist cookie jars, so to speak. Here are a few tried and true titles for Chinese New Year:

NONFICTION

Lucky New Year! by Carolyn Otto (National Geographic)

Celebrating Chinese New Year: An Activity Book by Carolyn Hoyt-Goldsmith (Asia For Kids)

Happy, Happy Chinese New Year! by Demi (Crown Books)

Bringing in the New Year (Read to a Child!: Level 2) by Grace Lin (Dragonfly)


FICTION

Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn (Lee and Low)

Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes by Nina Simonds (Harcourt)

The Year of the Rabbit: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chinn (Immedium)

Lanterns and Firecrackers: A Chinese New Year Story (Festival Time) by Jonny Zucker (Barron's)

The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale by Yin Chang Compestine (Dutton, 2011)

The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin (Dutton) and its sequel The Year of the Dog (Dutton)

For more tips on celebrating the upcoming Year of the Rabbit, there is a web site which offers a stir-fry of suggestions from coloring pages and crafts to cooking up tasty tidbits, history, symbols, and even a Chinese horoscope guide here.

Jie Jie! The Year of the Three Sisters by Andrea Cheng

In the middle of the night I hear a sound. It is Fan, trying to muffle her sobs in the pillow.

"Are you worried about your grandfather?" I whisper.

Fan looks at me in the dark. "Grandfather and Mama and.... Everything. And you and Andee."

She takes a deep breath. "Andee is your friend. And now you fight. It is my fault. Andee is not happy with me. I come to America for success. Not for fun. Andee is not patient."

"If she was patient, you would not be in America," I said.

When Andee and Anna visit their pen pal in China, they find that Fan has had to stop school and work as a hotel waitress to help support her migrant family in the city. Andee instantly decides that Fan should come to school in America for a year to gain the fluency in English that will open up opportunities for a better job in the hotel.

Andee's mother arranges everything, but when Fan arrives and moves in with Andee's family, Anna can see that things are not working out between her two friends. Andee is impetuous and talks too fast, and Fan refuses to join in family fun, constantly studying by herself with her door closed. Anna tries to help, but for once Andee won't talk to her, and Fan is stubborn and unwilling to change. The dream of a year of the three sisters isn't coming true for them.

But when Fan's beloved grandfather dies, in her grief she opens up to her American sisters, confessing how lonely and homesick she is, how strange she feels in Andee's big house and in her big high school, so different from her life at home. Even Andee listens, and the empathetic Anna reveals that she is lonely in middle school, too, with Andee now at high school. Andee confesses that even she feels alone, too, in her new school. The three girls see that they are all in new situations that make them feel isolated, but that their distance from each other is also a cause of their loneliness.

Andrea Cheng's fourth book in her Anna Wang series, The Year of the Three Sisters (An Anna Wang novel) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), shows best friends Anna and Andee moving into adolescence and experiencing the changes that time has brought to their relationship, and when they think about how many more changes Fan is going through, they find a way to make their friendship grow strong again. Author Cheng reveals the feelings of her characters skillfully in their own thoughts and words, a technique that helps readers interpret the emotions that come with changes. Most young adolescents feel like "strangers in a strange land" at times, that sense of living in two different worlds that children of immigrants feel in spades, and Cheng's novels provide a window into that world. "Cultural details are woven skillfully throughout, while [Patrice] Barton's comely illustrations add to the overall appeal. Another winner!" says School Library Journal.

Earlier books in this series are The Year of the Baby (An Anna Wang novel), The Year of the Book (An Anna Wang novel), and The Year of the Fortune Cookie (An Anna Wang novel).

For stories of slightly younger Chinese-American protagonists, there are also Newbery author Grace Lin's notable Pacy Lin books. (See reviews here.)

Back to School: Orange Peel's Pocket by Rose Lewils

Nicknamed "Orange Peel" because as a baby she tried to eat the peels along with the fruit, Chan Ming knows she was born in China and adopted by her American mom. But one day at school her teacher pulls down a map of a very large country--China. And when her classmates turn to Orange Peel to tell them all about the land of her birth, she realizes that she can't answer their questions.

"I don't know, but I'll find out," she says.

Mom suggests that she interview some of the Chinese-American storekeepers nearby, and Orange Peel finds out that they are delighted to tell her bits of Chinese history, illustrated by their wares. Mr. Fan, the tailor, pulls out some shiny dark thread. "The best silk comes from China," he tells her, fine but strong, and as Orange Peel and her mother thank him for his story and turn to leave, he slips a little somethng into her pocket.

At Ma Sang's antique shop, Orange Peel is amazed at the beautiful treasures she sees, all from China, and as she leaves, Ma Sang slips something into her pocket--one of her own poems, this one about the mountain, lakes, and flowers in her homeland. At Mrs. Lo's flower shop, she is shown some of the famous flowers of China--peonies and chrysanthemums--and the proprietor slips a peony into her pocket.

Ready for a snack, Orange Peel and her mother head for Mr. Yo's Noodle Shop, for bowls of "the best noodle soup in the world" and she learns that he uses an very old family recipe to make his own noodles: "long noodles, long life," he says with a smile, and slips his soup recipe into her pocket.

For dessert, they stop off at Jasmine's Ice Cream Shop, and as Orange Peel tells Jasmine about her Show-And-Tell project at school, she is amazed to learn that ice cream was invented, not in America, but in China, and another surprise is slipped in her pocket secretly as she counts out the change to pay for their cones.

What Orange Peel finds in her pocket that night is a little bit of Chinese lore from each of the shopkeepers--silk thread, a recipe for noodle soup, a flower, a poem, and best of all, a tassel from Jasmine, "red for good luck." With something to show, something to tell, and her good luck red tassel, Orange Peel's report to her class is a success.

Rose Lewis' new Orange Peel's Pocket (Abrams, 2010) is a welcome addition to the literary offerings for Chinese American adopted children. Grace Zong's stylized illustrations in chrysanthemum colors are picturesque, and although this book contributes only tidbits of information on Chinese history and culture, it provides a warm introduction for early elementary children to the heritage of Chinese adoptees.

For more of the personal history of Rose Lewis and her daughter, pair this new one with her earlier autobiographical picture books stories, the wonderful I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, the story of her adoption of her daughter from China, and its equally loving sequel, Every Year on Your Birthday, which journals the story of each of her child's successive birthdays, from her first toy-filled celebration through her second, marked by a red-white-and-blue cake to celebrate her citizenship, to the gift of her first puppy, and finally her "graduation" on her school-aged fifth birthday. Another story of Chinese American adoption is award-winner Grace Lin's moving The Red Thread: An Adoption Fairy Tale, which begins with the beautiful Chinese proverb which says, "an invisible, unbreakable red thread connects all who are destined to be together."

Winning! American Library Association 2019 Children's Book Awards

The American Library Association has announced its 2019 awards for books and media for youth.

Winning the John Newbery Award for children's literature was Merci Medina for Merci Suárez Changes Gears (Candlewick Press.)

Newbery Honor Medals went to Veera Hiranandani for The Night Diary (Dial Books) and Catherine Gilbert Murdock for The Book of Boy (Greenwillow Books).

The Randolph Caldecott Award for picture book illustration went to Sophie Blackall for Hello Lighthouse (Little Brown). Winning Caldecott Honor Medals were Juana Martinez-Neal for Alma and How She Got Her Name (Candlewick); A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin (Little, Brown); The Rough Patch by Brian Lies (Greenwillow); and Thank You, Omu!by Oge Mora (Little, Brown).

Clara Hartfield won the Coretta Scott King Author Book Award for A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion).

King Honor awards went to Lesa Cline-Ransom for Finding Langston (Holiday House), Varian Johnson for The Parker Inheritance (Arthur A Levine), and Kekla Magoon for The Season of Styx Malone (Wendy Lamb Books).

Ekua Holmes took the King Illustrator Book Award for The Stuff of Stars (Candlewick Press).

King Illustrator Honor Awards were given to Hidden Figures illustrated by Laura Freeman (HarperCollins); Let the Children March illustrated by Frank Morrison (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); and Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Calkins Creek).

The King/Steptoe Award for new talent authors went to Tiffany D. Jackson for her Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 (HarperCollins), and the new talent award for illustrations went to Oge Mura for Thank You, Omu! (Little, Brown).

The Pura Belpre' Medal was awarded to Yuyi Morales for her Dreamers (Holiday House).

The Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature was given to Elizabeth Acevedo for The Poet X (HarperCollins).

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children was given to The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science, written by Joyce Sidman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal for books for beginning readers was awarded to Corey R. Tabor for Fox the Tiger (My First I Can Read) (Balzer and Bray), and Geisel Honor Book Awards went to David Milgrim's See Pip Flap (The Adventures of Otto) (Simon Spotlight); Sergio Ruzzier's Fox and Chick: The Party: and Other Stories (Chronicle Books), Dori Hillestad Butler for King & Kayla and the Case of the Lost Tooth (Peachtree), and Emily Tetri for Tiger vs. Nightmare (Roaring Brook).