394.26

Genre: Folklore
Art: Water Color /Ink and Wash
Summary: This books tells us the traditions in China, including the festivals, traditional food, customs, art.
The authors must have a comprehensive understanding of Chinese culture so that they can write those traditions in such details.
I think this is a good folklore picture book. Because many festivals and customs introduced in this book are Chinese popular legend. They are passed down mouth by mouth. What's more, the pictures in this book is also pertinent. I can see that author must attach great importance in considering the usage of words in oder to make it more interesting. ( )

I used the book, “Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes”, as one of my best examples for my multicultural text set. I absolutely adored this book! I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons but I will share my top two reasons I found this book entertaining. This book is intertwined with different recipes for traditional meals, passed down Chinese tales, and directions on how to make items seen in festivals. For example, one part of the book gives directions on how to create a paper lantern. Before the book gives directions on how to create the lanterns, the authors explain why these paper lanterns are important and how they correlate with the Chinese New Year. I also liked this book because the authors used Chinese terms to refer to a name of a traditional food. For example, tanggua, or candied melons, are made for special occasions. There are also other recipes for jiaozi (dumplings) or yuanxiao (sweet rice balls). The main idea of this book is to spread the knowledge of Chinese culture, tradition and customs through the cuisine and passed down stories. ( )

This book gets points for covering a lot of information about holidays, especially the folk tales, crafts, and foods. Some of the information is in unwieldy chunks, so bring it out when a holiday approaches, and divide it throughout the year.

“Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats” by Nina Simonds is a very clever and interesting book containing stories, poems, craft projects, and recipes all pertaining to the Chinese New Year and other Chinese holidays. It is full of bright and colorful illustrations and looks like a really fun book for children and parents to share together. ( )