The 12 Days of Lunar New Year

by Jenna Lettice, Colleen Madden (Illustrator)

Illustrations and rhyming text invite the reader to count the days leading up to Lunar New Year, from one dancing dragon to twelve zodiac animals, using the rhythm of the traditional song, The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Asian Literature

24 pages, Paperback

Published January 4, 2022

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I checked this out from the library without realizing it is part of a series of gimmicky picture books about "The 12 Days of [Fill in the Blank]" and I was unimpressed. It's just a random collection of "Lunar New Year" events put to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas. There is no context and it is not educational for anyone who is not already familiar with the holiday. Based upon the negative reviews here and on other review sites, those familiar with the holiday feel that it was not accurately or sensitively represented and even just with my limited study of the subject I can see that, too. I strongly encourage parents and educators skip this book. Fortunately, you can find much better.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking for a book for my nephew and niece to help teach them about our culture and traditions during Lunar New Year. I stumbled upon this book and after taking a peek through the pages, I was hugely disappointed.

The author is building off her "12 days of" gimmick without regard to our actual culture and traditions. Lunar New Year is celebrated by many different cultures in many different ways. How many more times do we have to say we are not a monolith?

The writing and artwork seem to be a bit more Chinese-centric. In which case, here are some quick facts. Chinese New Year is a celebration that lasts for 15 days starting with New Year's Day. Actually, traditions start with preparations (for example, cleaning the house) before New Year's Day and what we call the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. Because Chinese New Year is less about gifts and more about family. And food. Always food.

This is just a "cute" book that is rife with inaccuracies and filled with random Chinese symbols (red envelopes, lions, dragons, etc.) that are used without any meaningful context. Please tell me why we would give 4 red envelopes on the 4th day, especially given the number 4 is an unlucky number in our culture??

Please stop exploiting our culture for your cutesy, folksy, white people entertainment. I understand this is a children's book, so it isn't meant to be an in-depth educational experience for them. But even so, in this day and age, it's shocking to see something so tone-deaf.

You want to do 12 days of Christmas, Kindergarten, or Kindness? Be my guest. But please do not culturally appropriate our culture for your commercial gain, thanks.

[The Gaudy Hottie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A counting book, I guess. Does not teach about actual traditions at all. Illustrations are nice but the title is misleading.

[Danielle T · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an odd book. Maybe 1.5 rounded up to be generous- the conceit is the 12 Days of Christmas song, apparently with [insert holiday/concept here] as a series. It kiiiiiinda fit rhythmically but obviously "lunar new year" has more syllables than Christmas so the beginning of each verse is clunky. And as an ABC yeah, *I* recognize what it's going for (brooms for sweeping are the cleaning in preparation beforehand but you wouldn't do it on the actual new year to avoid sweeping away your luck. Eight dumplings? Sure, that's an auspicious number and they're a symbol of wealth because they're shaped like ingots) but this isn't really explained to the casual reader and for a kids book, you do kinda need explanatory commas. The seventh day is shopping with seven friends and 9 zodiac critters are around as toys but not pig, ram, or monkey for some reason?

Perplexing. Maybe it's the twelve days up to LNY but that's less clear.

[Anita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book. Total fail. If you're looking for a newly published book about Lunar/Chinese New Year for toddlers, I highly recommend Dragon Noodle Party by Ying Chang Compestine

[Stacey Mulholland]

I bought this for my classroom because it didn't just say "Chinese New Year" but referred to it as Lunar New Year. Other countries and cultures celebrate the Lunar New Year, not just in China.

[Sandra Matthews]

This book needs to be taken off shelves and taken to a sensitivity editor like Eva Wong Nava.