Do you celebrate Lunar New Year with your kids or students? Lunar New Year is a great way to teach students about other cultures and countries while adding a bit of celebration to your day too! If you’re interested in learning more, check out these Lunar New Year picture books to get started!
What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year is the celebration of the first new moon of the lunar calendar. The months in the lunar calendar are moon cycles. The Lunar New Year Festival usually falls sometime in January or February. It is primarily celebrated in East Asian and South East Asian countries. Each culture has unique traditions and celebrations.
Using Picture Books to Teach About the Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year takes so many different forms, and there’s a lot of interesting information to learn about this topic! For this reason, I love to use picture books as a teaching tool.
They’re great for providing a visual of different celebrations worldwide as well as simplifying all the info out there. Not to mention, students will love flipping through them after read-aloud time!
If you’re not sure where to start with Lunar New Year picture books, don’t worry! Here are ten of my favorites to test out in your classroom!
1. Lunar New Year by Hannah Elliot
This colorful picture book is a great way to kick off our list!
In this book, students will explore some of the celebrations and traditions around the Lunar New Year in China.
Inside this story you’ll find beautiful artwork by Chinese illustrator Alina Chau, showing the lighting of lanterns, dancing, and fireworks. This is a great book to introduce the festive and fun celebrations of Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year to young students.
2. The Night Before Lunar New Year by Natasha Wing
Have you read any of the “The Night Before…” books by Natasha Wing? I love these stories that follow the familiar rhyme of “The Before Christmas”.
In this Lunar New Year picture book, the author gives readers a peek at what goes into the preparations for this holiday. Students will love following along as a family prepares dumplings, goes shopping in Chinatown, and more.
Use this book to introduce some new concepts, vocabulary, and forms of celebration to students.
3. Grumpy New Year by Katrina Moore
In this book, a young girl named Daisy is traveling to China to see her Yeh-Yeh or Grandpa.
Daisy has been making plans for how they’ll prepare for the Lunar New Year when she arrives. She wants like fly colorful kites and make jiao zi, a type of Chinese dumpling.
But when Daisy arrives in China, she has trouble sleeping and feels grumpy! Throughout the week of holiday preparations, Yeh-Yeh tries just about anything to get rid of her grumpiness.
Take readers along to explore the wonder of Lunar New Year and see how Daisy gets out of her funk!
4. Celebrate Chinese New Year by Carolynn Otto
If you’re looking for a Lunar New Year picture book with real facts and photos, you’ll love this one! In this book, students will learn about the various ways in which the New Year is celebrated by Chinese communities around the world.
This book will help students understand Chinese culture and traditions and offer an inside peek into the festivities and celebrations.
Children will learn about the history of the holiday, how people prepare for it, and the many forms of celebration that take place for the Chinese New Year!
5. The Nian Monster by Andrea Wang
If you’re looking for something to make your students perk up, this book will be a winner!
This book describes the mythical creature, The Nian Monster. This legendary monster only comes around on Chinese New Year!
In this book, the typical, old tricks to keep him away aren’t working anymore but a young girl named Xingling has a plan to get rid of him! Read this book to see if her idea will save the city from the Nian Monster!
6. Tomorrow is New Year’s Day by Aram Kim
This book teaches students about the Lunar New Year in Korea!
The Korean Lunar New Year is called Seollal and it’s Mina’s favorite day of the whole year. Mina is excited to celebrate the customs and traditions of the holiday with family and friends.
Read this book to learn about how Koreans celebrate Lunar New Year and compare them with other countries!
7. Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee
This heartwarming story follows a girl named Ruby who wants to give her Grandmother a special card for Chinese New Year.
Follow along as she tries to find a way to deliver the card to her grandmother with some help from the animals of the Chinese zodiac!
Ruby meets twelve different animals on her journey including clever Rat, strong Ox, cautious Rabbit, and more! This book is a fun way to introduce the Chinese zodiac to younger learners.
8. Our Lunar New Year by Yobe Qiu
If you’re looking for a picture book that compares Lunar New Year across many countries, you’ll love this one!
In this book, children will learn about the celebrations and festivals that take place for Lunar New Year in China, Thailand, India, Korea, and Vietnam! Students will love learning about the different types of celebrations that take place all over the world.
If you’ve got older students, have them choose their favorite celebration to write about after reading this book together. It’s always fun to see what each student comes up with!
9. Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao by Kat Zhang
Ready for a story that will make your students laugh? Come along to meet Amy Wu, the fearless youngster who is determined to make the perfect bao bun!
She loves to make bao with her family, but this time it needs to be perfect! Follow along as Amy struggles and keeps running into problems along the way.
This book will make everyone smile and introduce students to a new food that is popular for Lunar New Year.
10. Chloe’s Lunar New Year by Lily LaMotte
Good luck oranges, red envelopes, and turnip cake? Read this book to students to see how Chloe and her family prepare for the Lunar New Year in Taiwan.
Join the fun as Chloe and her family decorate, go shopping, make festive foods, and more! This book will share more of the treasures, traditions, and celebrations that occur during the Lunar New Year with students.
These books are just a few of my favorites! Check out more of my favorite Lunar New Year picture books here. There are so many fascinating traditions to learn about and this book list will help guide your lessons and inspire your little learners!
Activities to Celebrate Lunar New Year
Are you ready to get started learning about this magical festival with your students?
I sure hope so! There is so much value in teaching students about other cultures and these Lunar New Year picture books are a great place to start!
If you’re looking for activities to go along with your books, you’re in luck! Click here to grab a FREE pack of resources all about Lunar New Year!
You’ll find non-fiction reading passages and color-by-code activities that will be the perfect addition to your classroom celebrations!
The reading passages are perfect for small groups or as a source of inspiration for writing time. Students will love following along as you read through each one! The color-by-code pages will come in handy for center rotations, fast finishers, and independent work time. I know your students will love these activities as they learn about the Lunar New Year!
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