Lucky New Year! Book

1. I saw another librarian reading this book at a training and thought, "This book is so cool! I must have it!"
2. I started pulling books for my Chinese New Year-themed storytime and saw that we actually DID have the book at my library!
3. I used the book as the opener for my storytime, and, just as I did, the kids loved it.

Lucky New Year! is a simple pop-up that incorporates some basics about Chinese New Year. You can make mom sweep the floor, pull on the chopsticks to reveal the stretchy long noodles, and even scratch 'n' sniff the orange. (Here i just passed around an orange for the kids to smell.) I had the kids take turns pulling and pushing flaps, and they were all duly impressed by the end, which is revealed to be a big dragon dance. The second to last pop-up, in which you make the lion costume open its eyes, also got a big "wow!" It's actually quite impressive how much material this book covers, and it's short enough to make it suitable for a preschool and up storytime. I was going to use a nonfiction book to tell the kids about various New Year's traditions, but I didn't really need to because of this book and the other picture book I read.

Ages 3 and up, though you'll want to be careful of the pop-up/flaps with the little kids (I read this to some 6-8 year olds--plus some older siblings--and it was enough to hold their attention, especially since I let them pull the flaps.)
Great for a Chinese New Year storytime