Dragon Dancer by Joyce Chng

This is a great book for the Chinese New Year collection of picture books! It is the story of a dragon dancer named Yao who finds his dragon costume, Shen Long, in storage and wakes him up for the Chinese New Year dance at the the shopping mall. Shen Long is an ancient dragon with his own voice that only his dancer can hear. The dance is noisy with drum beats, cymbals, and fire crackers. The note in the back tells us the noise is to remind us how a monstrous creature once ravaged a village for food and only loud noises by the villagers would frighten him away.  Today, the dragon dancer is dramatically dancing to chase bad luck away and invite in the good luck. The dragon dancer,Yao, hopes his grandfather will be proud of his dance.

The illustrations are done in deep tone watercolors with lots of blue, green, red, and golds. There are lots of white spaces on the page to highlight the images which are in irregular shapes throughout the book and across the two page spreads. It feels like you are dealing with an old dragon and old traditions.

Chinese New Year is celebrated for two weeks and ends with the Lantern Festival.  The festival welcomes spring and celebrates family reunions. Children receive red envelopes of money and wear new clothes to welcome the new year. Spring cleaning is also a tradition which removes junk and unused items which are thrown away or given to charity.  Cleaning up brings positive energy and good luck and prosperity.  Lion and dragon dancers will dance at shopping malls, restaurants, and homes to invite more good luck.

If I was reading this book to a class, I would give students some of the background information found in the author's notes at the back of the book to help kids understand the reason for the dragon dancing at the Chinese New Year.  This book will be a good addition to the holiday collection. 

I rate this book 4 out of 4.

Grade Level:  K-3
Reading Level:  3.9
Publisher: Lantana Pub (January 1, 2018)
Pages:  32
ISBN: 978-1911373261 

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