Bringing in the New Year

Where The Great Race tells the mythological origin of the Chinese zodiac, Bringing in the New Year is its modern household companion — the picture book about what Lunar New Year actually feels like in a Chinese-American kitchen the night before the festival. The two books answer different questions a curious child might ask. (“Why is it the Year of the Rabbit?” → The Great Race. “What do we do on Chinese New Year?” → this one.)

Grace Lin is a Taiwanese-American author-illustrator and one of the strongest working voices in children’s books for any audience. Her saturated gouache illustrations are unmistakable — red and gold and bright orange, simple shapes, faces full of warmth. The text is short enough for a 3-year-old to follow as a read-aloud and detailed enough that a 6-year-old looking at the same spread will notice the food on the table, the dragon scales, the lanterns being unwrapped.

The story walks through the household preparations: sweeping the floors clean of the old year, hanging up new decorations, the family gathering for dinner, lighting the firecrackers, the lion dance through the streets. Each spread is a moment a real family would recognize. Lin doesn’t explain the meaning of every tradition in didactic detail — she trusts the reader to absorb them as natural, as something this family does, which is how most cultural traditions are actually learned by children.

For a household preparing for Chinese New Year with a preschooler, this is the read-aloud to buy. For a classroom Lunar New Year unit, this is the picture book to put on the storytime mat. Pairs naturally with The Great Race (origin story) and Lon Po Po (folktale tradition); together the three give a 4–6 year old a full first introduction to Chinese culture without being a cultural primer.

Grace Lin has a small library of related Chinese-American picture books — Dim Sum for Everyone, Kite Flying, Fortune Cookie Fortunes — all in the same warm gouache style. Households that love this one tend to collect them all.