Book Highlight: I Really Want Durian! • 好想吃榴槤
With the pre-order underway and *hundreds* of titles available to order, the choices can feel a little overwhelming, so I thought I'd highlight a few favourite of ours!
This one was one of the earliest Chinese books I bought, well before Little Kozzi was a thing 🤪
The story is very simple: A little mouse suddenly wants to try durian, but he's never had one, so he goes and asks his animal friends what it tastes like.
His animal friends have never had it either, but all *pretend* to know what it tastes like, leaving the mouse thinking durian must be magical! It apparently tastes like watermelon, pineapple, and guava all at the same time!
The mouse finally gets his hands on a durian and all the animals watch intently as he cuts into it... (You can read it yourself to find out the ending 😛)
There are several things I love about the book:
1) It's written by a Taiwanese author. There are many Chinese children's books written by western or Japanese authors that are translated over. Those stories are great, but sometimes the Chinese prose gets a little awkward, cause some things just don't translate well? This book, on the other hand, has none of that problem. We're reading the exact words the author wrote ♥️
2) The book is about a distinctly Asian fruit. It's such a cute way to introduce an uncommon fruit that is part of our culture. Plus, I think it's a fun way to pique kids' curiosity about tasting/trying new foods, and think about how we go about describing this sense.
3) The interactions are SO human and relatable. How many times have some of us pretended to know more than we did in conversation, to "save face"? 🤣 I think it's a neat thing to talk about with kids.
And, this book is bilingual! The English text isn't inline, but rather as its own section at the end. This is great if you don't like the distraction of inline English but still want it as a reference.
It also comes with a QR code that narrates it in both English and Mandarin.
You can pre-order the book here: I Really Want Durian! • 好想吃榴槤
I highly recommend this, and honestly anything else by this author-illustrator: Liu Hsu-Kung 💕
His books are always so fun, unique and multi-layered. They always leave me thinking, and are the kind of book that both kids and adults can enjoy.
Here are two new titles we're bringing in with this pre-order by the same author that I'm pretty excited about 👇