In Search of Hua Ma: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Breakthrough Level, Traditional Chinese Edition

Breakthrough level

by John Pasden, Jared Turner, Shishuang Chen (Editor)

***Traditional Chinese Edition*** As a young boy is walking through the mountains in search of a gift for his mother's birthday, he comes across an ancient looking home. An old lady beckons him inside and asks him to find "Hua Ma". As he leaves, he finds himself inexplicably transported to the distant island of Hainan while the old lady and the house have disappeared. Unsure of who or what Hua Ma is, he sets out on a quest to find him, realizing this mysterious Hua Ma may be his only chance to find his way back home! Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know. The Breakthrough Level is written using only 150 unique Chinese characters and is intended for Chinese learners who have obtained a low elementary or novice level of Chinese. Most learners will be able to approach this book after one year of traditional formal study, depending on the learner and program. This level is designed to help learners begin to read full-length texts in Chinese and combines simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline that helps beginners grow their vocabulary and language comprehension abilities.

Genres: China, Language

80 pages, Paperback

Published April 13, 2020

Reviews

[Vicky]

My 3rd graded reader 🎉 read aloud with tangents for clarification + discussion over a period of 9 sessions with my tutor, since late April. This was a really well-written original story with magic realism elements about a boy from Shānxī just trying to bring home a nice big flower for his mom's birthday, while using a core set of only 150 characters. I'm impressed.

- getting the hang of 的
- distinguishing 住 and 在
- learning 一边 x, 一边 y structure
- realizing the "comma" I glazed over is a unique punctuation mark used almost like the English misuse of the slash
- looking for negation clue (都没有) to suggest "not even [x]"
- expanding recognition of prep. words like 对, 给, 到，etc.
- lol @ 很老很老的老头 (tripped over this one)
- expanding recognition of 要 as imperative + something about to happen
- catching at least one new sandhi rule for 一边 and 一点 （1st to 4th tone)
- 笑 is more smiling, not really laughing

[Morgan Mc]

First Chinese book!✅

[Ula]

My fourth Chinese book read in 2023! 🎉🥳🏮

[Jessica Whitworth]

A brilliant way to practise Chinese, I really enjoyed reading this book 🙂

[selina (^_−)−☆]

idk i just really think nannans parents were really irresponsible letting him walk around and talk to strangers like that at such a young age. also not a fan of the way it left on a cliffhanger? how did his parents know the old woman??? 3 stars for the moral message tho

[Ian]

Mandarin graded readers for beginners are severely lacking in the US book market today. However, even these "breakthrough level" books still require a good 50+ hours of exposure to extensive reading or listening in Mandarin at one's comprehension level to really enjoy. Because of that, I do think the name "breakthrough" might be somewhat misleading, and I think there is a need for books that target genuine beginners with zero Mandarin experience. Graded readers such as "Shéi haokan?" and "Haokan shi bu gou de" by Li & Krashen, which include pinyin, or some of the books by Terry Waltz, are certainly a better starting point.

Du Chinese is the only tool I know of that can help learners effectively and efficiently bridge this gap in early literacy development.

That being said, the stories are engaging, and the audio tracks are very helpful. It would be nice if readers did not also have to spend an extra few bucks to purchase the audio tracks, considering each book is already ~$15.

I would recommend these books to anyone who is trying to learn Mandarin, without a doubt. However, the audio tracks are absolutely essential to comprehension. I do not recommend that new learners attempt to read these without the audio track, at least the first time around. Trying to read hanzi without pinyin support or audio to help you along as a fresh Mandarin learner is incredibly challenging, and in my opinion, a waste of time.

The advice John and Jared give in the beginning of the books is spot-on, and I appreciate that they emphasize extensive reading as key to language learning. Many do not understand this, and a lack of extensive reading in a language learning routine will inevitably slow progress and lead to burnout.

5/5

[Bex]

This was a cute little story, packaged in an attractive book, with lots of helpful notes and vocabulary. It also used repetition of set sentence structures in different contexts, which was useful to be able to see how they are used in various applicable situations.

Although it is aimed at beginner to intermediate readers, it felt more like a children's book than one for adult Mandarin learners. Part of me doesn't mind that, because I am in fact an overgrown child, but part of me would have liked something that felt a teeny bit less juvenile, perhaps.

[Sarah]

I found that this is the best book to practice pronunciation with out of the Breakthrough Level Mandarin Companion books that I've read. There are moments where the authors purposefully challenge new learners to make distinctions with tones (ex: placing 马，妈妈，and 吗 near each other) and words with similar pronunciation (like 去 and 出). I found the story to be pretty good but not quite as engaging as Just Friends or My Teacher is a Martian. But, like I said before, this book is really good for learning and practicing, and I definitely recommend it!

[Clifford]

In very simple Chinese, this book is a fun way to practice reading instead of just studying grammar and vocabulary. This is the first Mandarin Companion book I've read and it was perhaps too easy for my level--not the book's fault, of course--so I'll look for more advanced books in the series. Recommended for students of Chinese.

[G]

This is the last of the breakthrough MC graded readers for me, and I think it's the most solid. Easily readable but an interesting story. Like the other breakthrough books, though, they can't resist filling the plot with unsolved mysteries and end on a cliffhanger. I think I've just learned to accept it.

The group of short Hainan guys are hilarious. "你是马妈妈吗？"

[Cat {Pemberley and Beyond}]

This took forever to finish as I've been using the text in so many ways (home-made blank filling exercise, handwriting practice, pronunciation practice). Absolutely loved this, and will keep an eye out for other texts in the series.

[Tiff]

Another successful captivating Mandarin Companion for struggling Chinese language readers. Not too easy, not too difficult, just right to build you confidence in reading. Highly recommended.

[Lily M]

My first book in Chinese!

[Lisa]

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2024: A book that takes place over the course of 24 hours (read in 2025)

[Ca Quang]

It's really a great book. Easy to understand for beginners.

[Lillian]

The plot and characters were interesting. The range of vocabulary was good.

[John Osborne]

I finished my first book in Chinese! The conversations were a bit dull and repetitive, but I suppose that is to be expected with only 150 characters. The plot twist was also pretty obvious. That said, it was still far more enjoyable than reading a textbook.

[Laura]

Excellent for newbies to Mandarin. Even manages some linguistic humor understandable with only 150 characters, which is quite an accomplishment for the authors and makes the reader feel pretty clever too. Sure it's redundant with 150 characters but they use those characters with maximum creativity and a lot can be learned about language structures by osmosis, and the repetition cements the learning. Makes a nice break from and reward for traditional textbook-based learning, and comes with a handy glossary and even discussion questions at the end.

[Gabrielle (Estel.Edits)]

🎉This is my first Chinese book!🎉⁠
//⁠
Then I immediately bought another and read yet another chapter. My Chinese reading stamina has exponentially escalated with these grader readers! When I started In Search of Hua Ma, two pages would leave me mentally exhausted. Now I'm up to easily reading 2-3 chapters in one sitting!⁠
//⁠
Mandarin Companion does a great job of choosing important phrases and words to include in the index. I like that I have to work a little to get the translation. And, above all, they don't include Pinyin on the page. Thank goodness.

[Cori]

Cute, a bit repetitive, but that meant by the end it was very comfortable reading.