Hello, friends! Our book today is Chinese Kite Festival (中国风筝节) by Rich Lo, a lovely bilingual dance through the sky with some unique kite creatures.

Join a menagerie of high-flying animals in a simple title that combines animal names with their symbolic meanings in Chinese culture and the Simplified Chinese written language. Readers can spy a bird soaring from its nest, a tiger pouncing across the sky, and a turtle sliding from a rock, among others, creating a sky-high dance of color and light.

Beautiful. Bringing together serene yet engaging artwork with gentle, simple sentences – both in English and Simplified Chinese – Lo creates a soothing early-reader look at animals that serves two languages with equal aplomb. Short sentences of soothing text, with a bold color highlighting each animal’s name in both languages, pair perfectly with digital watercolor artwork that give the kites themselves texture, depth, and motion. Backmatter explains what the animals represent in Chinese culture, a neat addition, though the text here is English-only for some reason, and I might have liked to see some information on Chinese kites and their cultural relevance as well. Otherwise, the length is perfect for a quick storytime for younger bookworms, and JJ loved the artwork. Overall, this is lovely read that brings together two languages and some lovely visuals, and definitely worth checking out. Baby Bookworm approved!

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)