A New Year's Reunion

A New Year’s Reunion talks about a little girl named Maomao who cannot wait for the Chinese New Year to begin. Not only is she excited for the ceremonies and the delicious sticky rice balls, but her dad gets to come home. He only comes home once a year because he works very far away. The little girl tells the exactly what she and father does to celebrate the New Year and to celebrate being together. When Maomao and her dad are making sticky rice balls, he puts a fortune coin in one of them. Maomao discovers it and the coin is supposed to bring her good fortune for the year. The little girl and her dad celebrate the New Year together watching the dragon dance from the roof of the house and spending quality time with one another. Before her dad leaves for the year again. Maomao gives him the good fortune coin so they can bury it in a sticky rice ball again next year.

I really enjoyed how this picture book describes the Chinese culture and what happens during a Chinese New Year. The book did not only focus on this. It also discusses the sad reality that sometimes families cannot always be together for whatever reason. What is important is that the time you do have together, you enjoy every second of it. I feel that students who have family members in the military or who may work very far away like Maomao’s dad would be able to connect with this story. They would know how it feels to get to see that person for only a short amount of time, maybe once a year. This would be a book that I would want to use in younger elementary grades. It would be a great book that could segway a class into learning more about the Chinese culture and New Year.

A New Year's Reunion

Author: Yu Li-Qiong

Illustrator: Zhu Cheng-Liang

Year Published: 2011