The Asian Reporter's
BOOK REVIEWS

COLORS OF THE NEW YEAR. Chinese New Year Colors, a colorful bilingual book by author, illustrator, and fine artist Rich Lo, is aimed at children from preschool through third grade.

From The Asian Reporter, V35, #1 (January 6, 2025), page 10.

Author & illustrator Rich Lo teaches young readers about Lunar New Year colors & traditions

By Rich Lo

Holiday House, 2022

Paperback, 32 pages, $8.99

By Jody Lim

The Asian Reporter

Chinese New Year Colors, by author, illustrator, and fine artist Rich Lo, is a book aimed at children from preschool through third grade. My nephew, a first-grader who is learning to read, and I enjoyed reading the colorful bilingual book together.

The first color we encountered was red — a highly auspicious color which represents celebration, prosperity, good luck, and more — in the form of firecrackers, which are often heard during the New Year and are "believed to scare away evil spirits."

Later, we saw the color gold accompanied by a lucky gold coin, which sometimes has an image of the "zodiac animal for the corresponding year of issue." When asked after finishing the book, which page was his favorite, without hesitation he said "gold!"

Readers are introduced to many colors and items — green and lucky bamboo, pink and a chrysanthemum, purple and the dragon dance, cerulean and the lion dance (which was his second favorite page).

The book is organized in a great way for young readers, with the colors written in English and Mandarin alongside the Lunar New Year objects. Located at the end of the book are explanations for the items, which made for expanded conversations.

Chinese New Year Colors is aimed at youngsters, of course, but all readers are able to learn about Lunar New Year traditions from Rich Lo and his educational book.