SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Angel in Beijin
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 3/8/1960
WEBSITE: http://www.belleyang.com/
CITY:
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME: SATA 259
http://www.smithmag.net/memoirville/2010/05/25/interview-belle-yang-author-of-forget-sorrow/ http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-05-09/books/20889665_1_butterflies-aflutter-belle-yang-persepolis http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/belle-yangs-forget-sorrow-interview http://www.newsarama.com/comics/belle-yang-forget-sorrow-100806.html http://feministreview.blogspot.com/2010/08/forget-sorrow-ancestral-tale.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born March 8, 1960,Taiwan; daughter of Joseph and Yaning Yang; immigrated to United States, 1967.
EDUCATION:Attended Stirling University (Scotland); University of California, Santa Cruz, B.S. (with honors); attended Pasadena Art Center College of Design; attended Beijing Institute of Traditional Chinese Painting, 1986-89.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Children’s author and artist. Exhibitions: Works exhibited at Monterey Museum of Art, 1996; Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, 1997; Orange County Museum of Art, 1997; American Immigration Law Foundation, 2007; Discovery Museum of San Jose, 2007; Pacific Asia Museum, 2010; and National Steinbeck Center, 2012.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Taiwanese-American author and painter Belle Yang is the author of a number of self-illustrated books, several of which relate stories about Yang and her family. In Baba: A Return to China upon My Father’s Shoulders she retells the tales her father, Baba, told to her about his life in Manchuria, China, during the early twentieth century, while The Odyssey of a Manchurian follows the man as he leaves northern China during the country’s civil war and finds refuge in Taiwan. Yang also shares family stories and Mandarin culture in picture books that include Hannah Is My Name, Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin , and the concept books A Nest in Springtime: A Bilingual Book of Numbers and Summertime Rainbow: A Bilingual Book of Colors.
Yang shares her own chapter in her family’s saga in the fictionalized Hannah Is My Name. Here narrator Na-Lin and her family move from Taiwan to San Francisco in 1967, whereupon she is renamed Hannah. Although Hannah enjoys her new life in San Francisco, her parents’ days are far more stressful: they wait to receive their permanent residency and hope the U.S. immigration authorities will not catch them working illegally before their green cards arrive. “The tension is palpable,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor, and, as Jennifer M. Brabander wrote in Horn Book, Yang’s “deeply colored paintings match the strong emotions.” School Library Journal reviewer Marian Creamer also praised Hannah Is My Name, noting that “the setting … as well as elements of Chinese culture are nicely evoked in both the text and artwork.”
A picture book for younger children, Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin introduces a determined purple donkey and the boy who named it. The little boy is the only one whom Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin will allow to ride him, and together they go off on adventures, such as watching turtles and picking persimmons. Booklist reviewer Stephanie Zvirin declared Yang’s “slick, striking artwork in high-intensity colors” to be the main attraction in Yang’s story. Zvirin’s sentiment was echoed by a Publishers Weekly contributor who praised the author/illustrator’s “witty folk-art stylings and … exuberant sense of color.”
Yang moves into rich bilingual territory in several of her books. In A Nest in Springtime: A Bilingual Book of Numbers/Chun tiande niao chao her images show a family of geese in the spring weeks as they await new goslings. Yang does not follow a strict linear counting-book format, but engages readers through different counting activities that are incorporated into the flow of the story. Mandarin Chinese text appears on the left-hand page, and the English in translation on the right side. “This bilingual offering blooms,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews critic who also commended Yang’s art work. “Swirling periwinkle blue and striking forest green provide depth to water and land,” the reviewer concluded. Yang followed a similar format in Summertime Rainbow: A Bilingual Book of Colors/Xia tian de cai hong. Horn Book contributor Viki Ash reviewed both stories and found their structure commensurate with the nonlinear form. “Thus [they] nod quietly to their conceptual underpinnings,” the critic noted.
Yang is also the author of an illustrated memoir, Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, which is geared for adult readers. “Yang spins out the story in concentric eddies and whorls, an excellent reverberation of her black-ink style,” remarked Booklist reviewer Francisca Goldsmith in appraising this work.
In the board book titled Hurry Home, Hedgehog! A Bilingual Book of Sounds, Yang features a little hedgehog who is racing home, hoping to get there before a storm hits. As the story begins, the baby hedgehog is grazing for food when storm clouds approach. A hooting owl warns about the oncoming storm, causing the little hedgehog to head home to Mama. Along the way, the critter hears various sounds, emphasized via onomatopoeia with words like Crack! and Baroom! to reflect the fast approaching storm. Each two-page spread features a top half with the right side in English and the left in modern-day Mandarin Chinese. The bottom half of each spread contains the illustrations. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Hurry Home, Hedgehog! “A sweet story with lovely illustrations to boot, developmentally pitch-perfect for older babies and toddlers.” Published at the same time is the companion book by Yang titled Squirrel Round and Round: A Bilingual Book of Seasons. Yang once again focus on the natural world, providing young readers with simple concepts along with illustrations. Squirell is always busy all year long, even making fresh tracks in the snow. Other animals and nature also are all around, from birds in the spring feeding their babies to colorful fall leaves falling to the ground. Like Hurry Home Hedgehog!, the book includes an explanation of tonal marks and a translation of Chinese characters. Christine Bulsa-O’Meara, writing for the Maine State Library website, called the illustrations “crisp” and noted that they “clearly depict the text.”
The picture book Angel in Beijing finds a young girl living in Beijing who forms a tight bond with a cat. It turns out that firecrackers on New Year’s Eve startled the cat, causing it to run into the girl’s yard. The two soon become inseparable as the white cat follows the girl around as she bicycles through the city of Beijing. When the unnamed girl rings the bell on her bike, the cat responds with appropriate cat sounds. Then one day at the Dragon Boat Festival, the cat disappears over a wall after grabbing onto the tale of dragon kite only to be spirited away. The young girl is upset and begins to bicycle around the city trying to find the cat. During the girl’s hunt, readers are introduced to many of the ancient city’s landmarks as the girl rings the bicycle bell hoping for a response. “The perfectly balanced and evenly paced narrative highlights … historic sites … while showcasing the small scenes of everyday life during her search,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
As the story progresses, the girl finally hears a response to the bell one day from the missing cat. It turns out the cat has been living quite well with a lonely older lady. The girl, showing her compassion, decides to leave the cat with the lady, promising to visit them often. The “gouache paintings linger on the one-story buildings, tiled roofs, and intimate courtyards that characterize Beijing’s older neighborhoods,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Erin Reilly-Sanders, writing for School Library Journal, called Angel in Beijing “a visual feast that introduces the sights of Beijing with a tender, thoughtful story in the background.” In an October 14, 2016 article for the KQED website, graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang, no relation to the author, told Rachael Myro that Yang’s stories reveal a history unknown to many Chinese Americans, adding: “especially those who parents aren’t as open with their memories, or whose Chinese language skills make it difficult to grasp the subtleties.” The graphic novelist also told Myro for the KQED website article that Yang’s books are “bringing something to me that ought to be familiar with me but isn’t.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July, 1999, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin, p. 1956; September 15, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Hannah Is My Name, p. 255; May 15, 2010, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, p. 25.
Horn Book, November-December, 2004, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of Hannah Is My Name, p. 704; November-December, 2012, Viki Ash, reviews of A Nest in Springtime: A Bilingual Book of Numbers and Summertime Rainbow: A Bilingual Book of Colors, both p. 53.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2004, review of Hannah Is My Name, p. 875; July 1, 2012, review of A Nest in Springtime; July 1, 2015, review of Hurry Home, Hedgehog!; June 15, 2018, review of Angel in Beijing.
Publishers Weekly, August 22, 1994, review of Baba, p. 45; August 5, 1996, review of The Odyssey of a Manchurian, p. 419; April 26, 1999, review of Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin, p. 81; May 14, 2018, review of Angel in Beijing, p. 54.
School Library Journal, November, 2004, Marian Creamer, review of Hannah Is My Name, p. 120; July, 2018, Erin Reilly-Sanders, review of Angel in Beijing, p. 58.
ONLINE
Belle Yang website, http://www.belleyang.com (October 3, 2018).
KQED website, https://www.kqed.org/ (October 14, 2016, Rachael Myrow, ” Crossing Cultures: The Compelling Tug of Chinese Memories on Belle Yang.”
Maine State Library website, https://www.maine.gov/msl/ (October 3, 2015), Christine Bulsa-O’Meara, review of Squirrel Round and Round! A Bilingual Book of Seasons.
Memoirville, http://www.smithmag.net/memoirville/ (May 5, 2010), Lisa Qui, “Interview, Belle Yang, Author of Forget Sorrow.“
Publishers Weekly Online, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (October 3, 2018), review of Hurry Home Hedgehog!
Writer & Painter
Born in Taiwan, Belle Yang is author and illustrator of adult nonfiction books, children's books and a graphic memoir. She spent part of her childhood in Japan. At age seven she emigrated to the United States with her mother and father. She attended Stirling University in Scotland, graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in biology but went on to study art at Pasadena Art Center College of Design and the Beijing Institute of Traditional Chinese Painting.
She returned from China to the United States late in 1989 after the Tiananmen Massacre with gratitude in her heart for freedom of expression, ready to listen to the stories her parents Joseph and Laning Yang wanted to pass on to her.
Amy Tan in her prepace to Baba, writes: "Belle Yang is an American writer who writes in English and thinks in Chinese. Her writing feels Chinese....It is as though we, the readers of English, can now miraculously read Chinese."
"In Belle Yang we have our Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall--all in one bright new talent."--Maxine Hong Kingston
"Captivating...rich in humanity...lavishly illustrated and lovingly narrated, Baba wonderfully evokes the sights, sounds and motions of a lost childhood."--Los Angeles Times
Crossing Cultures: The Compelling Tug of Chinese Memories on Belle Yang
Belle Yang never knew her great-grandfather, or the world he inhabited, but her father did. Yang's stories and paintings based on her parents' experiences bring a lost China to life in the US. (Photo: Courtesy of Belle Yang)
Belle Yang wasn’t always graciously fascinated with her parents tales of days gone by. The family arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area when she was just 7 years old, and like many children of immigrants, Yang was eager to put the old world behind her.
“Growing up here,” she says, “I started to go my own way.”
The Yang family, early upon their arrival in San Francisco in 1967, looking a little shell-shocked.
The Yang family, early upon their arrival in San Francisco in 1967, looking a little shell-shocked. (Photo: Courtesy of Joseph Laning)
Yang is more frank in the autobiography on her web site, where she writes that she “raged” against the language, iconography, beliefs of her parents: “I wanted to run away from the Chinese universe I had been born into and launch into an American world view, free of the weight of memories.”
But after college, in her mid-20s, a relationship went sour, and her physically-abusive boyfriend became a violent stalker. Yang fled to China to escape. For three years, she toured the country and studied classical Chinese art.
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A panel from Belle Yang's graphic novel Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale.
A panel from Belle Yang's graphic novel Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale. (Photo: Courtesy of Belle Yang)
Then, in 1989, the Tiananmen Square Massacre snapped her to attention. Yang watched in horror as Chinese troops fired on unarmed protesters. Yang wasn’t among the protesters, but the massacre proved to be an “a-ha” moment. She was watching something eerily similar to her own personal experience with the ex-boyfriend.
“I was watching the government silencing and mentally abusing its own citizens," Yang says. "That hit home, and I realized that when I got home, I wanted to serve as a witness to these events.”
Back In The US, With A Different Attitude
After three years in China, Yang was ready to relate to her parents with much more intimacy. She wasn't simply more fluent in Chinese language and art. She had traveled over the landscapes her parents had traversed when they were young.
Initially, the stories they told her were snippets of half-awakened memories – not enough detail to constitute a complete narrative. But she persevered. "I set the stories down, and it just grew," she said.
Eventually, she published her first book, Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father’s Shoulders.
Detail from "Cat At Window," by Belle Yang. Steeped in Chinese tradition, but also evocative of Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall.
Detail from "Cat At Window," by Belle Yang. Steeped in Chinese tradition, but also evocative of Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. (Photo: Courtesy of Belle Yang)
Over roughly three decades, she's published 10 illustrated books and a graphic novel.
Folksy Treatment of Dark History
For her work, Yang draws on her classic Chinese training and the influence of her father, who’s also an artist. But Yang's art is a personal amalgamation of her travels through China and Europe. Many of her bright, folksy illustrations bring to mind Marc Chagall, famous for his dreamy depictions of Eastern European Jewish folk culture, a culture that no longer exists. That's another parallel with the subject matter of Yang's work.
"I fell in love with the folk art that was colorful and naïve and just playful," she says.
There's another way in which Yang differs. Unlike Chagall's post-Holocaust work, more nightmarish than dreamy, Yang's art inhabits a calm, witty space where the viewer is invited to observe the pain and sadness of China’s blood soaked 20th century from a safe distance. Some of her books are for children; some are decidedly not.
Detail from "Fishmonger" relates a story of post-Communist China, when her father returned to a village where he had many friends, only to find people too afraid to talk to him. The village children, the eyes and ears of local party officials, followed close on his heels until he left.
Detail from "Fishmonger" relates a story of Communist China, when her father returned to a village where he had many friends, only to find people too afraid to talk to him. The village children, the eyes and ears of local party officials, followed close on his heels until he left. (Photo: Courtesy of Belle Yang)
"The dark seems darker when juxtaposed by something light, bright," Yang says. "The incongruity of humor makes the words plus pictures much bigger."
A Mission to Keep Chinese History Alive
Gene Luen Yang of San Jose swims in similar artistic waters. He’s a graphic novelist – no relation – who has also mined his experience as a Chinese-American in illustrated books and graphic novels.
He compares Belle Yang’s work with that of Art Spiegelman, whose graphic novel Maus, about the Holocaust, is credited with helping people see graphic novels and the like as fitting places to explore tough topics.
"Maus is drawn in a way that emphasizes the personal nature of the events," he says. "Belle’s does the exact same thing. Her art is about drawing the reader into the story."
Detail from the cover art for "Hanna Is My Name: A Young Immigrant's Story."
Detail from the cover art for "Hanna Is My Name: A Young Immigrant's Story." (Photo: Courtesy of Belle Yang)
Gene Yang adds Belle Yang's work chronicles a history lost to many Chinese-Americans, especially those who parents aren't as open with their memories, or whose Chinese language skills make it difficult to grasp the subtleties.
"Chinese history always feels new to me," he says. "We are so familiar with European history, that the history of any other country, including the country our ancestors came from feels foreign and now." Yang's work, he says, "is bringing something to me that ought to be familiar with me but isn’t."
A Few More Stories to Collect and Retell
Now 56 years old, Belle still lives with her parents. Yang’s dad is 88. Her mom is 84, and because Laning sleepwalks, Belle sleeps in the same room. Which provides yet more material for future stories because her mom also talks in her sleep.
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"And she enunciates so clearly! She speaks Japanese, she speaks Mandarin Chinese, and also Fujianese, which is a dialect in Taiwan. She has conversations with her mother at times. I don’t know what that will become, but it could be an interesting project," Yang said.
You can see for yourself at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, which is hosting an exhibition of her work through December 4, 2016.
YANG, Belle. Angel in Beijing
Erin Reilly-Sanders
School Library Journal. 64.7 (July 2018): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
YANG, Belle. Angel in Beijing. illus. by Belle Yang. 32p. Candlewick. Jul. 2018. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780763692704.
K-Gr 2--A modern girl living in Beijing bonds with a white cat who was startled into her courtyard by the New Year's Eve firecrackers. Tooling around the city, Kitty endearingly answers "niaow-niaow" to the "trrring-trrring" of the unnamed girl's bicycle bell. However, Kitty takes flight over a wall on the tails of a kite at the Dragon Boat Festival. Unable to find the feline, the girl roams the more traditional city landmarks, ringing her bicycle bell. One day, Kitty answers back and the girl finds her comfortably at home with a lonely old lady. The girl kindly promises to visit both of her new friends often, leaving the cat there. The glorious illustrations overshadow the slightly awkward text. Written in the present tense, the sentence structure is repetitive, and the proper names of places and occasional Chinese words may challenge unfamiliar readers. On the other hand, soft curving shapes mixed with bold white and black outlines keep the visuals lively. The lines are gentle and brushlike while the fills have only the barest hint of texture for a flowing sense to the images. VERDICT A visual feast that introduces the sights of Beijing with a tender, thoughtful story in the background.--Erin Reilly-Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Reilly-Sanders, Erin. "YANG, Belle. Angel in Beijing." School Library Journal, July 2018, p. 58. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A545432362/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=387fb2dd. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
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Print Marked Items
Yang, Belle: ANGEL IN BEIJING
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Yang, Belle ANGEL IN BEIJING Candlewick (Children's Fiction) $16.99 7, 10 ISBN: 978-0-7636-9270-4
A Chinese girl in search of her lost kitty inadvertently takes readers on a tour of famous landmarks in
Beijing.
An unnamed girl and a stray white kitty quickly form a friendship. "Kitty loves to come with me when I
bicycle around Beijing." The two even come up with a unique call and answer using the girl's "new bell"
she attaches to the handlebars: "Trrring-trring. Niaow-niaow, answers Kitty." Unfortunately, while enjoying
the kites at the Dragon Boat Festival, Kitty ambitiously captures a dragon kite only to be whisked away
from her friend. The perfectly balanced and evenly paced narrative highlights the many historic sites in
Beijing while showcasing the small scenes of everyday life during her search. "I visit Liulichang Street.
Kitty has good taste in antiques. She likes to watch artists painting, too." Yang brings another layer of
emotion to the story when the girl finally finds her furry friend in the care of "a granny" and must decide
where Kitty is needed the most. Yang's simple sketches are painted over with bright, bold colors that are
sure to keep young eyes exploring every scene, which bustle with cars, bicyclists, and other people enjoying
activities both familiar and less typical for Western readers.
A sweet tale about friendship that gives a glimpse of life in another part of the world, this loving tribute to
Beijing is a perfect read-aloud for young travelers. (Picture book. 5-8)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Yang, Belle: ANGEL IN BEIJING." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A543008764/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e8efff34.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
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Angel in Beijing
Publishers Weekly.
265.20 (May 14, 2018): p54+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Angel in Beijing
Belle Yang. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 9780-7636-9270-4
Yang (Forget Sorrow) follows her young narrator as she cycles through Beijing looking for her cat, Kitty,
who has been carried aloft on the tail of a Dragon Kite. At last, the girl hears a familiar "niaowniaow" on
the other side of a gate. When she's reunited with Kitty, she extends a lovely gesture to the elderly woman
who's been taking care of her. The device of the cycling search allows Yang to examine Beijing's traditional
urban spaces: "I take a shortcut through a hutong [narrow alley] that smells of yummy steamed baozi
[steamed buns]." With expressive ink lines and pleasing color combinations, Yang's gouache paintings
linger on the one-story buildings, tiled roofs, and intimate courtyards that characterize Beijing's older
neighborhoods. The details of the journey refer to the sounds, smells, and sights of the city, though the list
of famous tourist spots ("I climb Jingshan," "I ride along the west side of Beihai Park") may make younger
listeners wiggly as they wait to find out what's happened to Kitty. Curiously, there's no glossary for the
Chinese terms. Ages 4-8. Agent: Al Zuckerman, Writers House. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Angel in Beijing." Publishers Weekly, 14 May 2018, p. 54+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A539387476/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=51913a08.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
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Yang, Belle: HURRY HOME,
HEDGEHOG!
Kirkus Reviews.
(July 1, 2015):
COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Yang, Belle HURRY HOME, HEDGEHOG! Candlewick (Children's Picture Books) $6.99 1, 6 ISBN: 978-
0-7636-6598-2
A little hedgehog hurries home in an effort to avoid a coming storm in this bilingual board book.A baby
hedgehog is out rooting around for "good things to eat." Suddenly, storm clouds appear on the horizon, an
owl hoots a warning, and soon the little critter is on the way home to Mama. The bottom half of each
double-page spread is filled with beautiful, inky illustrations. The top half is further divided in two: the right
side dedicated to English text and the left devoted to corresponding Mandarin Chinese (with the occasional
exclamation point or question mark). Little ones will thrill at the hedgehog's ever-so-slightly perilous
journey home, and older ones will enjoy figuring how the English words translate and vice versa. The
hedgehog's flight introduces the vocabulary of the natural world--clouds, wind, pine cones--as well as
onomatopoeia and a fresh cultural reference: "Rain falls hard like soybeans." Stylized animals and flora
have good, distinct outlines and are filled with bright but still-natural colors. The final pages of the book
supply a helpful glossary of tones and the story reproduced in both characters and pinyin. A companion
board book entitled Squirrel Round and Round publishes simultaneously.A sweet story with lovely
illustrations to boot, developmentally pitch-perfect for older babies and toddlers. (Board book. 1-3)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Yang, Belle: HURRY HOME, HEDGEHOG!" Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2015. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A419698288/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=08bd42ed.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A419698288
Yang continues her series of English/Mandarin Chinese board books with the story of a hedgehog racing to get home before a storm. Her simplified gouache paintings picture the spiky brown hedgehog crawling over green fields covered with spiraling grasses, windblown cattails, and fallen autumn leaves, the storm providing ample opportunities for onomatopoeia: “Crack! Baroom! The sky sounds angry.” Chinese characters appear alongside the English narration, and a pinyin translation at book’s end allows readers to see how sound effects translate—some, like the “ping pang ping pang” of rain “fall[ing] hard like soybeans,” sound nearly identical in both languages. Simultaneously available: Squirrel Round and Round: A Bilingual Book of Seasons. Ages 2–5. Agent: Deborah Warren, East/West Literary Agency. (Jan.)
Reviewed by: Christine Bulsa-O'Meara - Buxton Center Elementary School, Buxton, Southern Maine Library District
Review Date: October 13, 2015
Review
This simple board book about the seasons is written in both English and Mandarin. A pronunciation key is included at the end of the book along with the Mandarin writing of the text. It would have been nicer to see the pronunciation key in with the book as it goes along.
Illustrations are crisp and clearly depict the text. Great lap book, and fun way to learn a new language.
Overall Book Score: very good