Traditional Chinese-English Books

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Saturday morning Chinese school, and your kid is negotiating at the door like a tiny lawyer. Or maybe it is the opposite: they asked for a Chinese book last night and you realized how few picture books in Traditional characters are about anything besides counting and colors.

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Either way, hello. This page is for families reading Traditional Chinese at home, in Hong Kong or Taiwan spellings of daily life, whose kids do their big feelings in English and their cuddles, sometimes, in Chinese.

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A note on what these books are not: they are not a Mandarin curriculum. They are stories. A boy who wants a popsicle and the feelings that follow. A slide that looks too big. A mom going out and the sad that stays a while. Researchers who study young dual-language learners describe pretty consistent vocabulary growth when children hear stories in more than one language, and work on naming feelings in words (affect labeling) suggests that naming a feeling can take some of the heat out of it. Hedged as that sounds, it is the honest version. The books put both languages on every spread so the person reading can fish in whichever language the moment calls for.

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We love you no matter how you feel. That line started as something we say to kids mid-meltdown, and it got printed on the books because it kept being true after the meltdown ended, in either language.

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I Want A Popsicle!: A Story About Dealing With Anger

I Want A Popsicle!: A Story About Dealing With Anger

See the book
The Big Slide: A Story About Dealing With Fear

The Big Slide: A Story About Dealing With Fear

See the book
When Mom Goes Out: A Story About Dealing With Sadness

When Mom Goes Out: A Story About Dealing With Sadness

See the book
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Dr. Anna Huang wrote these books. She is a clinical psychologist whose practice is young children and their parents, and she grew up in a Chinese-speaking family herself, which is why the Chinese reads like something a real auntie would say rather than a textbook. Ages 2 to 5 is the natural range, though a lot of families keep reading them through the preschool-to-kindergarten feelings years.

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Questions parents ask us

Is the Traditional Chinese appropriate for both Taiwan and Hong Kong usage?

The text uses Traditional characters as commonly written for children in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Everyday vocabulary choices lean general, so a Hong Kong family and a Taiwan family can each read it aloud without stumbling over a word that would never leave their kitchen.

My child resists anything that feels like "Chinese homework." Will this feel like school?

These are bedtime-story shaped, not lesson shaped. No pinyin drills, no "repeat after me." Several families told us their kid picked up the book themselves on a Tuesday, which was the whole hoped-for outcome.

Do you have both Simplified and Traditional editions?

Yes. Pages on this site carry the Traditional Chinese edition and a separate Simplified edition exists for the same three stories. Same books, different characters, whichever your family reads.

Which book should we start with for a child who melts down often?

I Want A Popsicle!, most likely. It is the anger one, and it gives you lines you can reuse in the actual moment. ("I see it. That want is really big.") If the hard thing is fear, start with The Big Slide. If it is separations, When Mom Goes Out.

Can grandparents who read only Chinese enjoy these with my kid?

That is honestly one of the best uses. A grandmother can read the Traditional Chinese side while the parent reads English later, and the child hears the same story twice in a week in both languages.