This is a very simple color book. Each page gives you the English name of a color, as well as the Chinese name of that same color both in English and in character. There’s also an item associated with that color that’s also associated with celebrating Chinese New Year. These items are described with their history at the end. This book will help kids learn Chinese colors and match them with items they see during these celebrations. ( )

Chinese-American picture-book author and illustrator Rich Lo explores the colors of Chinese New Year in this brightly illustrated bilingual concept book. Each two-page spread features a given color, in both English and Chinese - the latter given in simplified character, and in transliterated form - on one page, and an illustration of an object in that color, on the other. These objects, from firecrackers to peanut puffs, all have significance for the celebration of the holiday, something expanded upon in the short afterword at the back of the book...

Although I don't normally read a great many early concept books such as this, I requested Chinese New Year Colors from the library recently because I was seeking Lunar New Year titles, and because the cover looked so lovely. Appropriately, given the subject matter, the use of color here is quite appealing. I appreciated the general layout and design of the book, and Ho's illustrations. I also appreciated that this was a bilingual book, offering children the opportunity to learn some basic Chinese vocabulary, as it concerns colors. Although I can't say this was a memorable title for me, in its own right, I can see it working very well as both a color book and an introduction to the symbols and customs of Chinese New Year, for younger children. It is for that purpose that I would recommend it. For myself, I'm curious to track down some of Lo's more story-driven titles. ( )