Book Review: 朱尔多日记 Zhu Er’s Diary

This review is of a bridging book set 朱尔多日记 (Zhū ěr’s Diary), which is ideal for middle-to-upper primary school readers. My daughter borrowed it recently from the library.  Until that point, I really thought we’d heard of most of the better known early chapter booksets from mainland China, especially those written in diary format, but apparentlyContinue reading “Book Review: 朱尔多日记 Zhu Er’s Diary”

Book Review: Zorori series in Simplified Chinese

Zorori 怪杰佐罗力) stories are a, great blend of comedy and mystery. A superb Simplified Chinese reading book for a P3 or P4 child.

Book Review: Magic Tree House in Simplified Chinese 神奇树屋

A good book set for a child who knows at least 1500 characters, and is ready to read novels. Historical adventure fiction., making is an appealing genre.

Simplified Chinese Comic Books & Graphic Novels for Kids

Review of six great sets of Simplified Chinese graphic novels for children which contain touching stories and Asian-themed graphics. Great for language learners of multiple abilities, with lots of cultural relevance too.

Chinese Home Library: Best Books of 2020 & 2021

Our family’s favourite Chinese book recommendations for each age group from toddler to tween. 3 to 9. As selected by my kids.

Building a Chinese book library at home for children

This post outlines how you can go about creating your own children’s Chinese book collection at home, and what to think about as you do it. It includes the types of books we have by age, genre and author, and also where they came from. Lots of geeky charts and graphs.

Extensive Reading: The secret to learning Chinese

Extensive Reading has been the key to our family’s Chinese learning. It’s about reading widely for pleasure, focusing on of texts where >98% of words/characters are known. This post describes how the approach works, and how stress free it can be. Don’t focus on teaching the child 500 words; focus on setting up a love of literacy for life.

Book Review: Frog and Toad Story Books 青蛙和蟾蜍

Frog and Toad is a charming set of 4-books, which tells a timeless story of friendship, having been written over 50 years ago …. it’s perfect as an early chapter book for an emerging reader, with less pictures and more text. The stories are endearing because Frog and Toad’s adventures are simple every day activities – going for a walk, reading, cooking, cleaning the house or tending a garden.  If your child can read >1000 characters, do give this a good look.