Tag: Korean culture

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Books for your Lunar New Year storytime and collection

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Lunar New Year is coming! Are you ready? Here are some new books to add to your storytime!

I Love Lunar New Year, by Eva Wong Nava/Illustrated by Xin Li, (Nov. 2024, Scholastic Press), $7.99, ISBN: 9781546144649

Ages 4-6

A family comes together to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Narrated by Mai-Anne, a young girl who helps her family prepare their home for the New Year and serves as the readers’ guide to Chinese traditions, the story includes Nai Nai, Mai-Anne’s grandmother, who arrives in time for the festivities, and her Uncle Eric, who arrives from Canada to spend the holiday with the family. There are cultural traditions throughout the book, including decoration (red lanterns for happiness, green bamboo and cherry blossoms for health), food (noodles for long life, fish for good luck), and storytelling, as Nai Nai relates the story of the Great Race, the folktale that explains each animal’s representation in the Chinese Zodiac. Facts about Lunar New Year and the Dragon Dance make up the back matter. A great introduction to the holiday, this beautifully illustrates the folkloric with the familiar. I Love Lunar New Year has a starred review from School Library Journal.

Want to introduce a dragon craft like the one on the cover? Super Simple has a craft for you. My Creative Life has another fun one, geared toward a slightly older audience.

 

Let’s Celebrate Korean New Year!, by Michelle W. Park/Illustrated by Hyewon Yum, (Dec. 2024, Random House Books for Young Readers), $14.99, ISBN: 9780593567302

Ages 4-8

Sisters Madeleine and Eloise have so much to do before the family arrives for the Lunar New Year Party! Madeleine rushes around the house pulling Eloise behind her as they don their colorful hanboks make the tasty dumplings, also called mandoo, and set up the game they play, yutnori. It’s exhausting watching Eloise try to keep up with Madeleine, but the two sisters sit down together to write a poem to share with their family, and that’s when the magic happens: working together, the two girls are happy and able to celebrate family, the real heart of the holiday. Explanations and culture references run throughout the story and the pencil illustrations are cozy, inviting readers to stop and spend a while with Madeleine, Eloise, and their family. Back matter includes a Seollal – Korean New Year – activity, recipe, and a glossary of terms. Endpapers feature mandoo of different shapes across a field of blue, including ones that appear to have been made by Eloise, sharp-eyed readers will see. An interesting and playful story about Korean celebrations for Lunar New Year, this is another solid choice for collections. There are some fun crafts, including a make-your-own yutnori board, at this Chalk Academy webpage.

Posted in Fiction, Horror, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

A spooky Book Birthday to Spirit Hunters!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Spirit Hunters, by Ellen Oh, (July 2017, HarperCollins), $16.99, ISBN: 9780062430083

Recommended for readers 9-13

Harper Raine is not happy about her parents’ decision to move them from New York to Washington, D.C. She can’t stand the creepy house they’ve moved into, especially when she hears the rumors about it being haunted. When her younger brother, Michael, starts talking about an imaginary friend and undergoes a radical personality change, Harper knows she has to act, even if no one else believes her. The thing is, some of Michael’s behaviors ring familiar bells for Harper, but she can’t put her finger on why. She’s missing chunks of memory from a previous accident – can things be connected?

Ellen Oh’s the founder of the We Need Diverse Books movement, and Spirit Hunters gives readers a wonderfully spooky story, rich in diversity. Harper and her siblings are half Korean; as the story progresses, subplots reveal themselves and provide a fascinating look at Korean culture, and the conflicts that can arise between generations. Harper’s new friend, Dayo, and a helpful spirit named Mrs. Devereux are African-American; Mrs. Devereux in particular provides a chance for discussion on race relations, and how racism doesn’t necessarily end with one’s life. Told in the third person, we also hear Harper’s voice through her “stupid DC journals”; journal entries suggested by her therapist, to help bridge her memory gaps, that show up between chapters. The characters are brilliant, with strong backstories, and two mystery subplots emerge that come together, with the main story, to give readers an unputdownable story that will dare them to turn the lights off at night.

I can’t say enough good things about Spirit Hunters, and neither can other reviewers: the book has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.