This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong

Bibliography
Wong, Janet S. 2000. This Next New Year. New York: Frances Foster Books.

Illustrator: Yangsook Choi
ISBN: 0-374-35503-7

Summary
The Lunar New Year is fast approaching and a boy and his family make the preparations to celebrate.

Critical Analysis
Janet S. Wong provides children with an excellent introduction to a Chinese holiday, the Chinese New Year. Wong's descriptive text and Yangsook Choi's vivacious illustrations complement each other perfectly.

There are many Asian American cultural markers though out the story. In the story, the boy explains he is part Korean and part Chinese. The entire story is an explanation of the lunar New Year, which the boy calls Chinese New Year. To give an example of a Korean cultural marker, the boy explains his mother cooks the Korean new year soup, duk gook. Also, he explains that people receive red envelops filled with money on this holiday. Additionally, Mother thoroughly cleans the house, getting rid of last year's dust, or bad luck, to make room for this year's good luck. The little boy even grooms himself completely to make room for the good luck soon to come. They also pop firecrackers at midnight to scare away bad luck.

The illustrations also provide example of Asian American cultural markers. One of the illustrations shows the family sharing a meal. They are sitting on pillows at a low table. They are also eating with chopsticks. In another scene, there are paper lanterns all around. Two of the illustrations show a dragon puppet and a lion costume. There is no reference in the text about the dragon or the lion, but upon doing research I found the dragon dance and the lion dance are both traditional dances performed in China.

The illustrator does an exceptional job portraying different races in the third and fourth illustrations of the story. On these pages, the differences in hair color and skin color are evident. The boy and his family have darker skin and hair than his French and German friends.

At the end of the story, the author includes a note about the lunar new year, explaining her childhood experience. This information is helpful, too. Wong's fun, lively text paired with Choi's exceptional, colorful illustrations makes this an ideal story about Chinese New Year.

Review Excerpts
Kirkus Review announces, "Choi's (Nim and the War Effort, 1996, etc.) lively, two-page spreads in bright colors, perfectly complement the energetic text, adding visual reinforcement to the scenes described by the narrator" (2000).

School Library Journal states, "Wong carefully and clearly presents the reasons behind the rituals in a manner understandable to young children. She explains in an appended note about her own confusion as a child about the timing and meaning of the holiday. Choi's vibrant, somewhat primitive paintings realistically capture the details of and preparations for this hopeful time of year" (2000).

Reviews accessed from Follett's Titlewave at http://www.titlewave.com/

Connections
Other stories about Chinese New Year:
D is for Dragon Dance by Ying Chang Compestine
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
When the Circus Came to Town by Laurence Yep

Other stories by Janet S. Wong
The Trip Back Home
Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club
Apple Pie Fourth of July
You Have to Write
Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams
Hide and Seek
Minn and Jake