Make a Monkey Chain for Lunar New Year!

Check out my Lunar New Year newsletter and please sign up!

As part of my Lunar New Year Story Time  for my newsletter subscribers (I'm starting to shift most of my stuff there, so please sign up!), I suggested that readers make a monkey chain decoration!  Isn't it super cute? This is how you do it:

You need:

-a 4.25 x 11 sheet of paper (a normal 8.5 x 11 piece of paper cut in half the long way). 

-a ruler

-a pencil

-scissors

-this monkey template, printed out, preferably on cardstock

-maybe some tape

Directions:

1. Measure 2.2 inches from one side of the paper and mark:

nice straight line, don't worry if it's not exactly 2.2 inches, it all gets fudged when you fold

2. Fold on your marking and then use that width to accordion fold the rest of your paper. You should be able to make 4 folds (which will equal five monkeys after cutting).

accordion fold is like making a paper fan

3. cut out the template and trace the monkey onto the folded paper.  It's pretty small, so you might want to use a small piece of tape to help hold the template down while you trace. Make sure the arms of the monkey go right to the edge, if not off the edge of your paper.

a little bit of tape helps it from moving around, but just tack it on gently as you want to take the template off!

it should be traced like this!

 4. Cut out the monkey from you folded paper, making sure you cut all five layers. Do NOT cut along the folds where the monkeys arms touch the edges of the paper (that is where the chain connects!)

When finished, unfold and...Ta-Dah!

Five monkeys to go with the Five Monkeys Rhyme I made Lunar New Year!

*Want to make this a craft with kids?  Consider:

-Enlarging the paper and the template proportionally so that it's easier for them to cut.
-If the kids are young, pre-measure the folds for them
-If the kids are very young, make the chains for them and let them color them red (to go with the rhyme)

See how you can use this monkey chain for a Monkey New Year Story Time in my newsletter! (and please sign up for future editions).

topping off christmas

Every year, I have this idea that we will create the most picturesque, Pinterest-worthy Christmas. So far, it's never quite happened. This year is no exception.

However, this year, we were determined to have a Christmas tree topper. The tops of all my trees of Christmas past have been bald because I've never gotten it together to make something to my liking. But a million years ago, when Rain Dragon was still a secret, I met the incredible artist Salley Mavor and got her book, Pocketful of Posies as well as her crafting book Felt Wee Folk.

So using that as an inspiration, the Sasquatch and I began making our little family. Here we are bald and as wizards:

Salley uses acorns for hats, but it's not acorn season! 

But in the end, we opted for hair and being Muggles:

Of course, we had to do this at night while Rain Dragon was sleeping and only finished this morning, so she got a Christmas Eve Morning surprise:

But the tree is fully decorated for Christmas!

Happy Holidays, all!! Wishing you a merry and joyous season!!!

Goodbye, Year of the Dragon!

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, the start of the Year of the Snake and the end of the Year of the Dragon!

It's been a lovely year, I can't complain. Sure, there were some disappointments, but they were pretty minor compared to the wonderful gift I've received.  So I wanted to say a fond farewell to the Dragon by sharing this little activity. This is actually a bit of a sneak peak to the Children's Book Week Bookmark I am creating, but it's also just a fun, simple way to celebrate the New Year!

Draw your dragon on a red sheet of paper and hang it for good luck!

The NOXIOUS TOAD:A Craft Activity

Make a toad lantern!

THE NOXIOUS TOAD
Rendi is as confused as the reader when the toad he has found in the well is welcomed by old Mr. Shan and Madame Shan like an old friend.  The sweet and clever toad proves to be a friend to Rendi as well when he frightens off the kidnappers who believe the small toad to be the Noxious Toad that will fill the air with its poison and kill anyone near.  The kidnappers are tricked because the toad has been fed fireflies and glows from within (pages 171-184).  The idea for feeding the toad the fireflies must have come from Madame Chang's wonderful trick of gathering fireflies in silk to make glowing lanterns on a dark night.

The Toad Lantern Craft
(special thanks to Curious City for creating this)

To celebrate, Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival,  I designed a Bunny Lantern.  Use that craft if you'd like to make the softer representation of the moon.  If, however, you want to scare your neighbors with the sight of the Noxious Toad or charm them with the sweet toad of Mr. Shan  whose belly is filled with fireflies, you can follow these suggested instructions HERE.

It's a book birthday party! Yes, Starry River of the Sky is now available (it's gotten 5 starred reviews!) and all day long I'm posting fun activities, behind-the-scene tidbits and a great giveaway (don't miss your chance to get your portrait painted)! If you want to celebrate with me in person,  check my tour schedule to see if I'll be having a booksigning near you--I'd be happy to see you!

Refreshments!

It's noon here at my virtual booklaunch, so it's time for some refreshments!  Would you like some mooncakes?

 The Starry River of the Sky has many parallels to the tales told during the Chinese Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival (you can learn more about the Moon Festival in my picturebook Thanking the Moon). The Moon Festival falls every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its most bright.

Mooncakes are an important part of the Moon Festival.  Exchanged as gifts, mooncakes are a round pastry with some sort of rich filling inside.  The preparation of this pastry is very complex, and many of the fancier versions feature an imprint of the Chinese characters for ‚"longevity‚" or "harmony." Pictures of the moon, the lady in the moon, or a rabbit (a symbol of the moon) are also often imprinted in the top.

Mooncakes are such labor-intensive pastries that many who celebrate the Moon Festival now rely on specialty bakers and mail order. But here is a simple version mooncake recipe courtesy of  the wonderful folks at Asia for Kids (look for their Asian languages and cultures resources at www.afk.com):

Mooncakes 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup salted butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 can red bean paste or 1 cup jam
 
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar and 1 egg yolk. Stir until creamy and combine completely.

2. Add the flour and mix thoroughly. Form the dough into one large ball and wrap it in aluminum foil. Put this in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. Unwrap the chilled dough and, with clean hands, form small balls in the palms of your hands. These are the mooncakes.

4. Make a hole with your thumb gently in the center of each mooncake and fill with about half a teaspoon of your favorite jam or red bean paste.

5. Brush each cake with the other beaten egg yolk.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the mooncakes for about 20 minutes or just until the outside edges are slightly brown. Makes about 24 mooncakes.

Other Mooncake-related activities you can do:

Chinese Character Treasure Hunt

An online search or a Chinese bakery visit near Moon Festival will show you beautiful examples of these traditional pastries.  You might have your reader do a treasure hunt through those images or pastry cases to see if he or she can find the Chinese characters for‚"longevity‚" or "harmony."

Finding Symbolism

What is common in all mooncakes, either simple or complex, is the round shape and the inclusion of a surprise filling in the center.  Can you help your readers make a connection between the shape of the cake and the moon? What could the unexpected filling represent?

Historical Research

Older readers may want to research the folk tale about how mooncakes were used as a tool of espionage in the overthrow of Mongolian rulers in the 14th century.  

For your convenience, this activity is available in a downloadable format HERE.

It's a book birthday party! Yes, Starry River of the Sky is now available (it's gotten 5 starred reviews!) and all day long I'm posting fun activities, behind-the-scene tidbits and a great giveaway (don't miss your chance to get your portrait painted)! If you want to celebrate with me in person,  check my tour schedule to see if I'll be having a booksigning near you--I'd be happy to see you!

DAY OF FIVE POISONS: An Art Activity

DAY OF FIVE POISONS
The Starry River of the Sky opens on The Day of Five Poisons, one of the most dangerous days in ancient China.  The day was observed on the fifth day of the fifth month and marked the beginning of summer when villagers were most vulnerable to poisonous animals, insects, and disease.

Right after Rendi arrives in the Village of Clear Sky, we see Master Chao paint Peiyi's forehead with wang, a symbol of power, to protect her from this unlucky day.  Master Chao uses wine mixed with realgar or arsenic.  Realgar/arsenic is a poison and the villagers believed you needed poison to fight poison.

Poisonous Animals
The five poisonous animals were the snake, the scorpion, the centipede, the spider, and the toad.  If you lived amongst these poisonous animals in the summer, you too might want to wear protection like all Chinese children did on this day.  The adults took their protection in a more potent way by drinking the wine with a touch of poison in it.  You get a sense of how much these animals were feared when you see how easy it was to trick Rendi's kidnappers into believing that the Noxious Toad was after them.

The Tiger
It was not just Chinese children in ancient China that wore the character for power or wang on their foreheads.  Tigers were believed to be the most powerful creatures of the animal kingdom, and in paintings and drawings of tigers, the black marks on their foreheads often formed the character, wang.

Five Poison Charms
Another common protection from the Five Poisons were charms that were hung about your neck or nailed to the your house. If you search online for images of "Five Poison Charms," you can see how many of the circular charms show a tiger chasing a snake, a scorpion, a centipede, a spider, a toad, or all five.  Yes, tigers were also very dangerous to villagers in Ancient China, but maybe like the arsenic that fought poison with poison, the tiger pit dangerous animal against dangerous animal.

Your Own Five Poison Charm
Create your own Five Poison Charm by drawing a tiger chasing a snake, a scorpion, a centipede, a spider, or a toad (or all five) in the circle template found HERE.  (Don't worry about your animals looking perfect.  Remember that charms were about symbolism.  Your tiger need only resemble a tiger to work!)  Cut out your charm when you are finished, cut a hole in the middle of it, thread the hole with string or yarn, and hang it on a doorknob or around your neck for protection.

It's a book birthday party! Yes, Starry River of the Sky is now available (it's gotten 5 starred reviews!) and all day long I'm posting fun activities, behind-the-scene tidbits and a great giveaway (don't miss your chance to get your portrait painted)! If you want to celebrate with me in person,  check my tour schedule to see if I'll be having a booksigning near you--I'd be happy to see you!

Moon Poetry

In my book, Thanking the Moon, you'll notice one of the elements the family brings to their night picnic is a book of poetry. Traditionally, it was during the Moon Festival that one waxed poetic--inspired by the beauty of the moon. If you read any Chinese poetry, you'll notice that a great many poems mention the moon. In fact, a legendary Chinese poet from the 8th century, Li Po (also known as Li Bai), is said to have died while trying to catch the image of the moon reflected in the waters of a lake. Here is a translation of one of his most famous poems, Drinking Alone With the Moon (See other translations HERE):

I take a bottle of wine and I go to drink it among the flowers.
We are always three–
counting my shadow and my friend the shimmering moon.
Happily the moon knows nothing of drinking,
and my shadow is never thirsty.

When I sing, the moon listens to me in silence.
When I dance, my shadow dances too.
After all festivities the guests must depart;
This sadness I do not know.
When I go home,
the moon goes with me and my shadow follows me.

But for your own Moon Festival Celebration, you might want something more child-friendly (and not about getting drunk!). You could try reciting my good friend Elaine's poem from her wonderful THINGS TO DO poetry collection (which is looking for a publishing home--hint, hint to any editors reading this!):

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE THE MOON

Live in the sky.
Be bold…
OR
be shy.
Wax and wane
in your starry terrain.
Be a circle of light,
just a sliver of white,
or hide in the shadows
and vanish from sight.
Look like a pearl
when you’re brim-full
and bright.
Hang in the darkness
and dazzle the night.

But the best thing would be for you to write your own. This would be a fun activity for you to do during or in preparation for the Moon Festival celebration. An easy way to begin is use the simplified haiku format (5-7-5 syllables per line). I've found that this is a great way to take the intimidation factor out of writing poetry, especially with kids. Here is a poem I wrote, inspired by a night canoe ride on my vacation:

PADDLING A CANOE AT NIGHT

My canoe follows
the rippling silver path.
Will I reach the moon?

Try it yourself! Let the moon and the night inspire you!



In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (now available!!) I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me this Sunday in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

tea eggs

In my book Thanking the Moon, you'll notice that part of the night-time picnic meal includes eggs (eggs are also eaten in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, too!). That is because eggs are round--symbolizing harmony and fullness--just like the moon! So eggs, are a customary snack during the Moon Festival. You could have them simply boiled or even deviled, but a traditional preparation that is easy, delicious and also quite pretty is to make tea-stained eggs:

Chinese Tea Egg Recipe
Ingredients:
6 eggs
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 star anise
2 tablespoons black tea (or 2 tea bags-stronger tea, the better)
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon pepper
2 strips dried tangerine or mandarin orange peel (optional)


1. Gently place the eggs in a medium pot and fill with water to cover the eggs by 1-inch. Bring the pot to a boil, lower the heat and let simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the eggs (leaving the water in the pot) and let cool under running cool water.

2. Using the back of the teaspoon, gently tap the eggshell to crack the shell all over. The more you tap, the more intricate the design. Make sure to keep the overall shell intact:
the eggshell should be cracked but still whole

3. To the same pot with the boiling water, return the eggs and add in the remaining ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil and immediately turn the heat to low:
I like extra star anise in my eggs--feel free to add more or less of the ingredients for your own personal taste

4. Simmer for 40 minutes to an hour, cover with lid and then let eggs steep for a few hours to overnight. The tea eggs will become more flavorful and with deeper patterns the longer you let them steep:


5. Remove the shells from the eggs:This is always the funnest part.

And you are done! Enjoy! They should be fragrant and flavorful and patterned--a joy for the mouth and the eye. Yum!



In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (now available!!) I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me this Sunday in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

bunny lantern craft

No Moon Festival is complete without the soft glow of a lantern. Children often parade their lanterns of different shapes and colors. Nowadays lanterns can range from modern cartoon characters to rocket ships, but usually they are round (like the moon) or in the shapes of rabbits (because of the Jade Rabbit that lives on the moon).

Which is why I decided to create a bunny lantern craft! This bunny lantern is easy, fun and (I think!) extremely cute:

When I was a child in school we had a paper lantern craft, but I was never quite satisfied with it because those lanterns could never be lit. So when I created this bunny lantern, I made sure it could really GLOW:


Isn't that fun? But before it glows, it has to be made. To make this bunny lantern you will need:


1. a sheet of tracing paper at 8.5 x 24 inches (my sheet is 19 x 24, I cut it to the right size)
2. a ruler
3. a pencil
4. a pair of scissors
5. scotch tape (invisible/not shiny is better)
6. markers, colors of your choice (mine are peach, black, brown, light blue)
7. 4 inch lightstick necklace, any color (mine is yellow)
8. cord (should come with your light stick necklace)
9. a chopstick
10. bunny template, download and print HERE (updated 9/7/2022)




STEP 1. Fold your tracing paper in half, to make an 8.5 x 12 inch rectangle:

STEP 2. Using the ruler, measure and make a line .75 inches from the edge of the long (12 inch) side. Fold on the line:

STEP 3. Repeat on other long side:

STEP 4. Tape both folds down. Make sure you tape down the entire length:

STEP 5. All sides of your paper except one should be closed (like an envelope). Fit the bunny template under you paper, making sure the opening is at the top. Trace the thick black lines:

STEP 6. Cut out your markings, as indicated by the template:

STEP 7: Draw your bunny face. My bunny face uses 2 simple black ovals for the eyes, a brown circle for the nose, blue whiskers and a peach color in the ears. But you can make your face anyway you wish!

STEP 8. Poke a hole through the top of your bunny's head (both layers of paper). You can use a small hole punch if you have one. I did not, so I just used my pencil:
STEP 9. String your lightstick inside the bunny using the cord. Tie it loosely:

STEP 10: Tie the other end of the cord to a chopstick. Tie this tightly, perhaps wrapping around the chopstick a couple of times to keep it secure:

And your bunny lantern is complete:

Now all you have to do is wait until nightfall, activate the lightstick according to the lightstick's instructions (you may have to untie & retie the cord) and let your lantern GLOW:
Make one for all the kids on your street and have a Moon Festival lantern parade!


In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (now available!!) I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me this Sunday in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

Chinese Firecracker Craft

This Chinese Firecracker Craft is safe and fire-free!

Supplies:
-bubble wrap
-toilet paper roll
-pipecleaner
-red and yellow (or gold paint) & paintbrushes
-tape/stapler
-scissors

1. Staple (or tape) the ends of the pipe cleaner to the inside of the roll. Then twist the pipe cleaner together to make it look more like a fuse:

2.Cut a 2x3 inch rectangle of bubble wrap, roll it and put it into the tube. Use a little tape on the top and bottom so it doesn't move around.

3. Paint your tube red. With the yellow paint, paint decorations on the firecracker such as the Chinese word FU (you can use this for reference) or a border of your imagination!


4.Now you can set off your firecracker. Put your fingers or thumbs into the tube and pop the bubble wrap! When the bubble wrap is popped, it sounds like fireworks are going off! (This works best when there is a whole classroom of kids doing this at once!) Happy Lunar New Year!