beththebookdragon's review against another edition
4.0
Great way to learn Chinese characters! Cute art with the characters built into the art in an easy-to-see-and-remember way. Great lapsitting book.
backonthealex's review against another edition
1.0
When my daughter was learning Chinese in high school, she used to have a character book in which she would write each character she had to learn that day over and over. Each character, she would tell me, is like a picture of its meaning. And when you read Christoph Niemann's cleverly written book The Pet Dragon, you can really see how true that it.
The story is simple - a young girl, Lin, is given a pet baby dragon as a gift. Lin and the dragon do everything together, but when the dragon shatters a vase, Lin's father insists he be put in a cage. The next morning, the cage is empty and the dragon has left. Lin looks everywhere for her friend - in the city, in the country and finally, with the help of an old lady and some magic beans, in the sky. There, she finally finds her baby dragon, now all grown up and beautiful, living with his family. When Lin returns home, she and the dragon promise to visit with each other often, and her father is so happy she has returned, he plans a celebration for Lin and the dragon.
The beauty of this book isn't exactly in the story, but in how Nieman has worked the Chinese characters into it to demonstrate the pictorial meaning of the characters used. Each character used is superimposed over a corresponding illustration.
Niemann states that his purpose is not to give kids, or adults for that matter, lessons in Chinese, but to perhaps inspire them them to want to learn more. And, though the story is a bit forced, it's purpose is not to tell a clever story, but to ingeniously demonstrate how characters reveal their meaning.
The characters used are simple enough for young children to learn and remember. When we first got this book, my niece L'naya was fascinated by it. One day we were in a restaurant, waiting for our meal to come, and next thing we knew. L'naya had written some of the characters from the book on the place mat. My Kiddo was amazed that L'naya had remembered both the character and its meaning so easily.
Niemann introduces the reader to 33 common, useful characters, making The Pet Dragon is definitely a fun book for beginning Chinese or just to read out of curiosity.
This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was purchased for my personal library.
This review was originally posted at Randomly Reading
The story is simple - a young girl, Lin, is given a pet baby dragon as a gift. Lin and the dragon do everything together, but when the dragon shatters a vase, Lin's father insists he be put in a cage. The next morning, the cage is empty and the dragon has left. Lin looks everywhere for her friend - in the city, in the country and finally, with the help of an old lady and some magic beans, in the sky. There, she finally finds her baby dragon, now all grown up and beautiful, living with his family. When Lin returns home, she and the dragon promise to visit with each other often, and her father is so happy she has returned, he plans a celebration for Lin and the dragon.
The beauty of this book isn't exactly in the story, but in how Nieman has worked the Chinese characters into it to demonstrate the pictorial meaning of the characters used. Each character used is superimposed over a corresponding illustration.
Niemann states that his purpose is not to give kids, or adults for that matter, lessons in Chinese, but to perhaps inspire them them to want to learn more. And, though the story is a bit forced, it's purpose is not to tell a clever story, but to ingeniously demonstrate how characters reveal their meaning.
The characters used are simple enough for young children to learn and remember. When we first got this book, my niece L'naya was fascinated by it. One day we were in a restaurant, waiting for our meal to come, and next thing we knew. L'naya had written some of the characters from the book on the place mat. My Kiddo was amazed that L'naya had remembered both the character and its meaning so easily.
Niemann introduces the reader to 33 common, useful characters, making The Pet Dragon is definitely a fun book for beginning Chinese or just to read out of curiosity.
This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was purchased for my personal library.
This review was originally posted at Randomly Reading
virginiaduan's review against another edition
3.0
What a cool book! And who knew that my son already read it at school and knew the Chinese characters? (I was very pleased. The school is totally worth my money!)
Although I think some of the Chinese characters were inaccurate (or not what I learned), I did appreciate the pictures making the Chinese characters make more sense. I enjoyed all the pictures and the story was interesting.
Very excited!
Although I think some of the Chinese characters were inaccurate (or not what I learned), I did appreciate the pictures making the Chinese characters make more sense. I enjoyed all the pictures and the story was interesting.
Very excited!
middle_name_joy's review against another edition
3.0
This is the coolest book that I've read in awhile! The story itself--a girl losing her pet dragon and going on an adventure to find him--only facilitates the ingenious idea to introduce written Chinese characters through the illustrations. This is one big, visual mnemonic device for remembering what the words that the characters represent.
I fully support this method, because it relates to the learning theory of environmental contextualization, and can be applicable for students with various learning styles: kinesthetic, visual, auditory. In the classroom, I would use this for so many different lessons. One that pops out at me is having the students research other Chinese characters and label items in the classroom using the design principles of the book's illustrations.
I fully support this method, because it relates to the learning theory of environmental contextualization, and can be applicable for students with various learning styles: kinesthetic, visual, auditory. In the classroom, I would use this for so many different lessons. One that pops out at me is having the students research other Chinese characters and label items in the classroom using the design principles of the book's illustrations.
itsallgoodreads's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book...made me miss our friends the Miekles and all the adventure they are having in China!
library_brandy's review against another edition
3.0
One day Lin gets a baby dragon as a gift. She and her dragon do all sorts of things together, becoming the best of friends, until one day they have a little too much fun and a vase is broken. Dad insists on caging the baby dragon, but the dragon breaks free in the night and disappears. Lin sets out to find him, and with the help of a witch-woman, eventually finds her friend in the sky with his own family. Everyone lives happily ever after, and the plot is summarized with more words than the story took to tell, I think.
The artwork is appealing--bright colors, bold shapes, and more cute than you'd think could be packed into 32 pages. Chinese characters are integrated into the illustrations; pictures behind the bold black lines of the symbol fill in the details of what the character stands for. Sometimes these overlays make sense, such as where a mountain is drawn in behind a three-pronged symbol; other times the representations miss the mark culturally, such as the symbol for "father" being used as Dad's grumpy facial expression instead of (as the evolution of the character is described in the preliminary note) the suggestion of a man holding an axe.
Many story elements are shoehorned into the plot to show the reader the particular character (i.e., a witch eats a bean from a pot so we can see that the written character for "bean" looks like a little cooking pot). This isn't a primer on learning Chinese--at best, it introduces the idea that there are other writing systems in the world (which is not in itself a bad thing). There are no phonetic pronunciations provided and the characters included have little relation to each other.
In an introductory note, the author clearly states that he's aiming this book at parents (several references to "you and your kids"); that's a tip-off right there of who the anticipated audience is. Young kids may gravitate to the bright, eye-catching pictures, but the story is too loosely held together to truly satisfy.
The artwork is appealing--bright colors, bold shapes, and more cute than you'd think could be packed into 32 pages. Chinese characters are integrated into the illustrations; pictures behind the bold black lines of the symbol fill in the details of what the character stands for. Sometimes these overlays make sense, such as where a mountain is drawn in behind a three-pronged symbol; other times the representations miss the mark culturally, such as the symbol for "father" being used as Dad's grumpy facial expression instead of (as the evolution of the character is described in the preliminary note) the suggestion of a man holding an axe.
Many story elements are shoehorned into the plot to show the reader the particular character (i.e., a witch eats a bean from a pot so we can see that the written character for "bean" looks like a little cooking pot). This isn't a primer on learning Chinese--at best, it introduces the idea that there are other writing systems in the world (which is not in itself a bad thing). There are no phonetic pronunciations provided and the characters included have little relation to each other.
In an introductory note, the author clearly states that he's aiming this book at parents (several references to "you and your kids"); that's a tip-off right there of who the anticipated audience is. Young kids may gravitate to the bright, eye-catching pictures, but the story is too loosely held together to truly satisfy.
createassemblage's review against another edition
4.0
Takes Chinese characters and uses them to illustrate their definition.