Celebrate Chinese New Year with Mandy and Pandy

Chinese New Year is right around the corner, and I couldn't be more excited. Growing up, I looked forward to all the yummy food, dragon dances and little red envelopes of money. I can't wait to celebrate this year and pass these traditions on to my son. We're going to have a delicious feast (hopefully) and attend the Chinese New Year parade. We're also going to have a delightful time reading a couple of books from the Mandy and Pandy series.

Mandy and Pandy is a colorful, fun series of books created to help young children understand how to read and speak Chinese. Each book follows Mandy (the author's daughter's name), and her sweet Panda friend Pandy, as they go on a variety of adventures together. The stories are engaging and feature basic words like colors, animals, numbers and different foods, as well as useful phrases such as "How are you?" The stories are presented in an easy to understand format, with the sentences being in English, pinyin (the phonetic pronunciation) and then the actual Chinese characters. An audio CD of the story being read aloud in both English and Chinese is included with each book, which I found incredibly helpful.

My son loves panda bears, so naturally he loves these books. I think he also enjoys hearing the stories read in two different languages. Sometimes he has trouble concentrating when he isn't fully engaged, but when I read these books to him he's loving every minute of it. You can check out the collection of Mandy and Pandy books here. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

WANT TO WIN? One winner will receive his or her choice of one Mandy and Pandy book. To enter, leave a comment on this post prior to Friday, February 19th at Midnight. Tell me your favorite part of Chinese New Year, or just the New Year in general. Winner must provide a US mailing address.

I received product samples for review purposes.