Summertime Rainbow: A Mandarin Chinese-English Bilingual Book of Colors

by Belle Yang

In English and Mandarin Chinese, Belle Yang's bilingual board books celebrate the natural world with simple concepts and beautiful, bold illustrations.

It's summer, and the meadow is in full bloom. As some bunnies hop along, they see blue sky, white clouds, and yummy green grass. How many more colors can be found? Look for an explanation of tonal marks at the end of the story, along with pinyin translation of the Chinese characters.

Genres: Picture Books, Summer, China, Childrens, Nature

22 pages, Board Book

First published April 24, 2012

About the author

"My Chinese name is Xuan, or "Forget-All-Sorrow." It is also Chinese for "lily of a day," notes Belle Yang. "If life spans a mere day, why spend it in worry?" Indeed, the author-illustrator of HANNAH IS MY NAME recalls a seemingly worry-free childhood in Taiwan and Japan, where she "doodled and fiddled around with words and discovered they were her life."

Now an author and painter, Belle Yang has developed a remarkable style that draws on her rich cultural background, influenced not only by childhood memories of Taiwan and Japan and her experience of immigrating to the United States at age seven, but also by her studies in Scotland and China. It was Belle Yang's homecoming from China to the U.S. after the Tiananmen Massacre that precipitated a new dedication to her art. "I returned with gratitude in my heart for the freedom of expression given me in America," she says. "I returned convinced that I would firmly grasp this gift with both hands." And since officially becoming an artist "sometime in the early nineties," Belle Yang's work has consistently garnered widespread acclaim for its vividness and authenticity. Notes Amy Tan, author of THE JOY LUCK CLUB, "Belle Yang is an American writer who writes in English and thinks in Chinese. Her writing feels Chinese. . . . It is as though we, the readers of English, can now miraculously read Chinese."


Belle Yang's latest book perfectly captures the essence of this Chinese-American fusion. HANNAH IS MY NAME is an immigrant story especially close to the author's own: "HANNAH IS MY NAME is based on our first years in San Francisco," she says. "I missed my old friends and teacher, but it was not a miserable yearning. It was a great privilege to come to the United States, and we didn't look back." Like the author, Hannah and her family move from Taiwan to San Francisco, where she takes a new name, begins a new school, learns a new language, and starts to adjust to a new way of life. Illuminated by Chinese-influenced paintings in jewel-like colors, Belle Yang's immigration tale represents one of the many facets of the American dream.


Belle Yang has written and illustrated four books and has participated in solo museum shows. She lives in California.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This simple dual-langue board book introduces basic colours in English and Mandarin Chinese. The included pinyin is much appreciated, however, it really should have been used within the text proper (underneath the Chinese characters) and not just placed at the back of the book as a supplemental note (for while the pinyin is indeed a wonderful additional learning tool, having it relegated to the back can easily prove frustrating as it means or rather as it can mean having to constantly flip back and forth to check, to verify). The accompanying illustrations are sweet, warm and descriptive, and although very much carton like and juvenile in look, they do work well with the presented text, successfully and glowingly aesthetically mirroring the scope and general purpose of Summertime Rainbow (as it is basically meant for very young children just learning their colours). That being said, the material presented in and by Summertime Rainbow might also be of use and benefit for introducing basic colours in Madarin Chinese to adult learners taking a first level colege or university language course (as long as the instructor does not limit himself or herself to using teaching materials primarily meant for young children, as that could rapidly become tedious and frustrating to and for adult learners, not to mention annoying).

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summertime Rainbow: A Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual book of colors is so cute! I am so happy to find a bilingual book that is suitable for the youngest picture book crowd and my 1.5 year old son really enjoyed the adorable bunnies and the colorful flowers, birds, bees and butterflies. I'm always so in awe of the beauty of the written language (Mandarin Chinese) and I enjoyed looking at them almost as much as the illustrations themselves. The author included the pinyin pronunciations and explains the various tonal marks heard in spoken Chinese.

[Lorellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful way to discuss color with Tot. She loves the bunnies.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple text introduces the colors using darling illustrations of animals and flowers and nature. While the text is definitely geared for young children, my children and I enjoyed using an online translation service to see which Chinese character corresponded with certain English words (I was interested to see if word order was more or less the same) and loved listening to the translation read the Chinese aloud.

[M Aghazarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute art style. The back of the book features a very thorough guide for pronunciation of tones and includes Pinyin for the sentences in the book. However it neglects to include the book's title and back cover in Pinyin. It would have also been more useful to have the Pinyin throughout the text, rather than flipping back and forth throughout.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

With text in Mandarin and English, some rabbits explore the colors in the garden.

There is a pronunciation guide in the back of the book and a pinyin to character translation to help those just learning Mandarin. The flowers chosen have a definite Chinese flavor. A cute way to learn your colors in English or Mandarin.

[Andrés · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's good the plot is not very complicated because digesting the Chinese characters requires a lot of attention. The pinyin pronunciations should have been on the individual text pages because it's too hard to flip back and forth. Love to see a bilingual book nevertheless.

[Jessica DeWitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, nature-focused board book with lovely illustrations that follows a rabbit family as they frolic amongst flowers and come upon a rainbow. I can't read Mandarin, so I can't speak to the bilingual nature of the book.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's perfect if your brother in law can read Mandarin :)

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Belle Yang has two new bilingual board books. Each is a concept book. A Nest in Springtime is a bilingual book of numbers in English and Mandarin Chinese. Summertime Rainbow, the second book, is a bilingual book of colors in English and Mandarin Chinese. Both books have simple text. But just because they're simple doesn't mean they're boring. Each concept book has a simple story to it as well.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bilingual (Chinese/English) board book about bunnies exploring a meadow of colorful flowers in springtime. At the end of the book a lesson in Mandarin Chinese tone is included along with the pronunciation of all the characters shown in the book.

[Chechoui · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute bunny illustrations on this bilingual Chinese - English book.