Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes by Faye-Lynn Wu and Kieren Dutcher is an appealing CD and book combo to expose younger kids (ages 2-7) to Chinese through songs and nursery rhymes. It would be a great in a classroom as well for units on China and/or Chinese New Year. I highly recommend this book!
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell is an award winning young adult novel (National Book Award Winner, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and An ALA Best Book for Young Adults) is a coming of age novel that oozes with “Mad Men” glamor and ambiance.
True or False series by Melvin and Gilda Berger is a young science series in a fun question-and-answer format. My kids reviewed Storms and Birds and gave both a thumbs up. For ages 6-9.
Lloyd Alexander’s The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen reminds me of Percy Jackson but the zen version or even a more swashbuckling version of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. For ages 8-14.
The circle of life thing. Yes. That is a hard lesson for anyone, much less a child and their beloved pet. And with a puppy, the circle of life will eventually come around. When this happens, I recommend this book, The Tenth Good Thing about Barney by Judith Viorst.
eBook, The Crystal Mountain, by Ruth Sanderson for ages 6-10. Sanderson combines folk tales from China and Norway in this lushly illustrated book. This is the perfect eBook for reluctant readers as it can be treated as a portable “book on tape” with rich language and gorgeous illustrations.
Round is a Mooncake written by Roseanne Thong and illustrated by Grace Lin, is an ebook for the iPhone or iPad about shapes with an Asian American Children’s Literature twist.