Lunar New Year: Great Race & Animal Zodiac

Quick Things You Need To Know:

• This is a companion list to our lunar new year collection.
• We’ve plowed through a lot of these since Chinese New Year is the big yearly holiday for our family.
• I don’t consider myself a superstitious or even a spiritual person – but I’ve grown up alongside the Chinese Zodiac as a circumstance of nature.
• So when it came time to plan to have children, we actively tried to have babies on specific years. Joke was on me – I ended up battling infertility for 7 years and having the worst possible sign that conflicts with my zodiac because we are too much alike. Truth fact: I am a Dog raising an energetic Dragon and a stubborn Horse and I am SO OVERWHELMED.
• While I *know* that our animal year doesn’t determine our personalities, it’s still hard for me to divorce my impressions of people as certain animals with traits. Except for Roosters. I don’t even know wtf is going on with them but those folks are wildcards.
• So in our family, we celebrate our animal signs and elemental attributes, and just have fun with them – kind of like our Hogwarts houses. I haven’t told the dragon yet that we were predestined to butt heads.

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Quick & Messy Book List

Stories about the Jade Emperor’s Great Race

• The Great Race – david bouchard – OUR FAVORITE – Q liked this, mostly because it depicted the dragon as kind and willing to be last even though he could have been first. the dog and pig story touched him the most, as the pig is unable to travel quickly so the dog stays with him and is a loyal friend. not sure if this would be a great story for anyone BUT dogs and dragons, as the rest of the characters are more complex (rat is opportunistic and dishonest, ox is kind and hardworking but a little slow on the uptake, pig is ineffectual (at some things, but good at others), rooster is a ladies’ man, monkey is vain, goat is a coward, tiger is disdainful. R2 wasn’t thrilled with the depiction of his sign – the horse – which was neutral and rather uninteresting. overall though, i liked this story of the great race way better than others. one caveat is Bouchard’s habit of couching good stories inside bland one. it’s unnecessary and hard to get kids engaged – as if we should care that this random grandmother is particularly fond of oxen. At 6, I had to reassure Q that the bland framing story would end and the story was worth reading despite the intro. At 7, we just skipped the framing story and all of us enjoyed it a good deal better. At first I was actively surprised that a white dude treated a Chinese story with such accuracy and respect, but it turns out Bouchard is Métis. Which is both a nice surprise and also kind of sad. I thought I had found a decent white guy.
  Bouchard did his research (given how important it is to Indigenous authors to honor tradition stories, this makes sense) and it holds up against all of the stories I grew up with. Despite that – one white lady gives the book a negative review on Amazon for not being ‘authentic.’ It’s always white folks who are concerned with ‘authenticity’ of our stories, btw – Chinese are typically play with creative license with our legends – just look at the Monkey King franchise. And our blatant disregard for copyright. This is a cultural difference, copying and innovating is not a bad thing in Chinese culture, and we tend to value craft over who came up with the original concept (ex: If you can copy a masterpiece perfectly and improve on it, you’re just as good or even better than the original artist). ages 4+, lunar new year
• Story of the Chinese Zodiac (Chang) – we’re about to test this with the LE now, so I’ll let you know how it goes. Papercut sculptures look interesting, seems like a simplified version of the story. Bilingual (English, Korean)
• Okay to skip these:
  • The race for the chinese zodiac – gabrielle wang – ages 4+  simple version of the great race that works for younger kids, although the illustrations are a bit dark and stagnant. i like that they incorporate the animals personalities with action rather than description. rather brief so it doesn’t have a huge story, just the river crossing, but we do see how the dragon is late because it goes to save people and animals from a drought, which we love because Q is a dragon. does include story of rat pushing cat into the water, so not a great story for rats. This works as a simpler version of bouchard’s so I wouldn’t bother reading this, I’d just wait a year and read that one. but this is fine.
  • The Great Race – dawn casey – SKIP. cute but basic and not worth reading. eliminates the excitement of the race and doesn’t include the most important part of the story, which is the personality of each character. not bad, but there are way better versions out there, even simple ones.
  • Ruby’s chinese new year – vickie lee – author bio suggests white mom of asian daughter, can’t verify. could be read alongside the nian monster – I love the humor of nian monster more, but this has cute enough illustrations and is fine if you can’t get your hands on a better book. westernizes the story of the great race, mixing it with little red riding hood (modern girl taking a gift to her grandmother for Chinese new year and the animals are coming along. ox is ’she/her’ and other animals are ungendered. story is a little confusing – ruby jumps into a pond to swim to grandmother’s house and destroys the picture she drew for her. but they bring the rest of the stuff they gathered along the way, like flowers (which is as anti-climactic as it sounds). storytelling is not good, but pictures are. uses animal zodiac but loses the point and doesn’t connect to the point – which is literally the order in which the animals win the race, so it doesn’t take the place of an appropriate great race story. whitewashing. AAPI illustrator (Joey Chou)
  • The Great Race (Corr) – Despite being introduced on the first page as ‘ancient China’ This just doesn’t feel Chinese at all. I don’t know what the heck this guy who is supposed to be the Jade Emperor is wearing (balls sticking out of his hat, googly-eyed yinyang symbols, peruvian tassels), why the ridiculously obtuse Jade Emperor looks West Asian, and what on earth is going on with the ginger-bread-esque pagodas. This feels weird and goofy. On top of that – there isn’t much to the story, it’s simplified to remove each animal’s personality, and just…why was this even published? British white authors taking our stories and ruining them. ugh. problematic whitewashing
  • Chinese zodiac animals – sanmu tang – holy shit this book is crap. NOPE. seems better suited for pop-psychology interests of 8yo (reminds me of my obsession with wicca and auras at that age), and fails to include legends or any suggestion that this might be silly nonsense. illustrations are SO cute and I felt sad not reading this to Q because I had been looking forward to them, but this is a book no child should ever read. also sexist AF – “females born in the year of the Rat are clever and bright, and can manage both their families and lives pretty well.” – image is of a delighted, laughing rat dusting and wearing an apron. whereas the “good strategist” rats are smoking a pipe and wearing a fedora. in fact – all animals that show toughness, strength, and mental acuity are masculine-presenting, whereas mention of children and refinery are demure females. women are singing, dancing, and overwhelmingly depicted in the “docile and compassionate” sheep described as obedient and kind. some characters are not gendered (scientists, gymnasts) but most are. problematic sexist.

Stories about each animal

• Rat (also usually includes, Cat)
• • Cat and rat – (ed young) – Chinese zodiac race legend. Not bad writing, but not good enough to overcome terribly blurry and dark illustrations. AAPI
  • mimi and shu, I’ll race you – trimmer – AAPI multiracial author. this needed scaffolding and I had a hard time telling who was who. we had to read it a few times to get the swing of it. I’m not in love with the way they just get over their poor behavior (lying, promising to give away a friend’s coveted cupcake, pushing a friend into the water, leaving a friend to fall behind in the water). also the addition of random animals who are not in the zodiac was odd. starting the book with an invitation made it a confusing read aloud. it’s also really hard to tell that mimi is a cat (thought she was a racoon or a red-purple panda until I realized she was the cat in the traditional story) at least they left the dragon leaving to save people behind. meh. wouldn’t read again but it’s nice to see an attempt at a modern version of the story. both 4.5 & 6.5 liked it for a couple reads on the lunar new year. trimmer is still not great at writing (his wheelhouse is publishing), but the illustrators he teams up with are.
  • The Year of the Rat (Chin) – SKIP. All of the other zodiac animals the rat comes into contact with are assholes. Nope. The rat also appears to have a chewing compulsion that they lock him up for. which – yikes. They only let him out when his chewing turns out to be handy. nope nope nope.
• Ox
• • Poor underrepresented Ox. Still searching for a good story featuring Ox.
  • Oliver Chin has one that I haven’t read yet, but my hopes are not high. Chin’s early work is terrible and he has little respect for the children he’s writing for.
• Tiger
• • The year of the tiger -chin – AAPI – as usual, terribly executed. Chin’s work is a manic, sloppy mess. reads like  cartoon episode of tigers afraid of people, epole afraid of tigers. Nothing at all to do with the lunar new year and only tangentially related to the zodiac in terms of personality.
• Rabbit
• • Another book that only Oliver Chin has bothered to tackle. Keeping my hopes up that Li Jian can cover this soon.
• Dragon – We’ve read a lot of dragon books since Q is a water dragon and most lunary NY books focus on the dragon above other zodiac signs (even though it’s lion dances that scare away the nian monster)
• • The Water Dragon (Li Jian) both R2 & Q (5 & 7) loved this for multiple reads. selflessness, sacrifice, sharing. writing gets repetitive, so there’s some ad libbing required. also in simplified chinese and english (fully bilingual, but no pinyin). we discussed how it doesn’t matter how much rice and money you have – if you don’t have water, you can’t survive (but you can use water to make rice and rice to make money). see him doing good deeds for animals – although the writing is choppy and they just keep repeating the same thing. choppy book but we still love it, and it reinforces the identity of dragons as self-sacrificing (for outsiders – self-sacrifice is an important moral value in Chinese culture) and generous leaders who care for the community. Squee!
  • Dragon new year – david bouchard – epic storyline that kept the book exciting despite the dated painterly illustrations. once we get through the intro story-within-a-story, it’s a fun read. lunar new year, nian monster (not named, just a sea dragon), strong elders (mother of eaten fisherman is courageous and strong), ages 4.5+, includes cameo with buddha, AAPI illustrator
  • Dragon Dance – holub Cute. interactive flaps and it feels cheery and cute. no chinese-slit eyes, can see the whites of eyes. somewhat sturdy flaps with supervision makes it great for toddlers and early preschool (too boring for 4+) Ages: 6m-4
  • Silk Peony, parade dragon – steckman – lost my notes for this. if I remember correctly, it’s a big unengaging but touches in anti-elder ageism and sexism, with an older woman who outsmarts a bigot.
  • The year of the dragon – oliver chin – this was written better than the dog one. dragon and his friends can’t join the dragon boat festival since the dragon is too large, plus his father disapproves. then he realizes he has a lot in common with his friends (irrelevant to the plot but they keep harping on difference/similarities) so he becomes the boat. i particularly love how he’s always helping people. ages 3.5+ dragon boat festival. It’s not worth reading for us, since at this point I just detest Chin’s work and his lack of respect for child readers makes me angry.
  • Okay to skip these:
  • • the dancing dragon – vaughan – super basic and boring. only interesting thing is that the book accordion folds out – but I don’t see a good reason WHY. it’s like they came up with the gimmick before writing the book. spread the dragon over many pages, but there’s not story and it’s boring.
    • Jin Jin The Dragon – chang – writing is awful and adverby, story is meh, but illustrations are great. AAPI makers (brother and sister), water dragon. There’s supposed to be a sequel but this was such a painful read I just can’t.
    • Chinese New Year’s dragon – rachel sing – boooooring
• Snake
• • Still pending books on these!
• Horse – hard to find these, and I’ve ben searching since R2 is a Wood Horse.
• • The Horse and the mysterious drawing (li jian) – bilingual (simplified chinese, English, no pinyin) – R2 always makes me read the boy protagonists in Jian’s stories as ‘R2’ and this worked so well, since ‘Ah Fu’ basically sounds the same. I LOVED this book – it fits in with our 2020 theme of respecting the seasons and rhythms of work. Ah Fu is a kind, gentle, and caring little boy (Jian’s stories are one of the few that depict and kind and gentle East Asian boy protagonist.) I’m just thrilled to read a story where we teach our kids to pay attention to the signals nature gives us to know when we should move forward with certain things (ex: “’It’s time to let the earth rest,’ the white horse told Ah Fu when the rivers started to freeze.”)
• Goat/Sheep
• • The Sheep Beauty – li jian – Not pertaining to the zodiac specifically, but does address the valued qualities of a child born in the year of the Sheep. Q loved this for a few reads. I liked it but the writing was off and the translation was not great. I stuttered over the choice to translate her into sheep beauty instead of sheep girl, as if she has more value if she’s a beauty. Q particularly liked how the sheep girl tricked the monster by telling him his own tracks, echo, and reflection were another monster he’d have to fight if he wanted to eat a child from the village. supposedly a real legend based on culture in sheep horn village. Chinese values ofself-sacrifice, tricksters, cleverness, ages 4+
  • The Year of the Sheep – chin – SUPER wanted to love this bcause I love chau so much, but it was a miss. AAPI makers. forgettable story. she looks for new things or ways to do things (generally is kind of a fuck up) and when they have a drought she figures out how to help because she’s an innovative thinker. but the writing is just AWFUL and Chau hard work can’t make up for Chin’s laziness.
• Monkey
• • Little Monkey King’s Journey (li jian) – Origin story of the monkey king. This particular story highlights the more positive qualities of The Monkey King (innovation, playfulness) and downplays his selfishness. The relationship between Monkey and his father(adopted) is so sweet, loving, and loyal.
• Rooster
• • Still waiting on this. Li Jian has one I’m looking forward to reading
• Dog
• • The Year of the dog – oliver chin – Skip it. modern story of dog born in current times in a doghouse and the dog family belongs to a little girl, but in a reality where dragons and tigers hang out on the sidewalk. not a great story and something that needs to be redone. ages 3.5+ emotional regulation – proportionate reactions
• Pig/Boar
• • in the year of the boar and jackie robinson – bette bao lord – chapter book for 8+. protagonist is 8, seems best for that age. really cute story, mentions some micro-aggressions but overall just a cute story of choosing to assimilate and some metaphors for more advanced readers on combining both chinese and american identities. very few illustrations, but the ones that are there are adorable, witty, and funny. i enjoyed the book and Q could be into it, but lack of adventure and parallel to our lives on top of lack of illustrations make me hesitant to introduce at 5 – I think that would actively turn him off, and would rather wait until he’s old enough to love it.  school day, baseball, 7+ wonderful sense of time and place, validating for girls of color. takes place in 1947 before we were allowed to gain citizenship (chinese exclusion act) – it’s not mentioned in the book (probably for the author’s protection) but given the date, the author is likely a paper daughter, autobiography, third culture kids. AAPI, undocumented, validating for girls of color, third culture kids
  • The year of the pig – chin – writing is better than usual (still not stellar, but not like ugggh), and manages to form a cohesive sotry without  too many distractions. everyone tells little pig (patty) to be more like them, ignoring that they have abilities she does not (she needs mud because she doesn’t have wool, she sleeps lying down because she’s not a horse, etc.) then she uses her pig-ness to help find the farmer’s jade ring in the compost. this was cute, and spoke to her using her natural abilities.  self-acceptance