In this lively concept book a little girl discovers a rainbow of colors in the world around her. Red is a dragon in the Chinese New Year parade, yellow are the taxis she sees on her street, green are jade bracelets and the crunchy kale growing in her garden. Many of the featured objects are Asian in origin, but all are universal in appeal. With rich, boisterous illustrations, a fun-to-read rhyming text and an informative glossary, this colorful book will brighten every child's day!

Book Reviews - Red is a Dragon

Kirkus Review: Pure, bright colors, excellent use of pattern, and Chinese-influenced composition and perspective dovetail neatly with color rhymes from the pair who brought readers Round Is a Mooncake (2000).


Booklist: This is a must-have for libraries serving Chinese American populations, and it will be a welcome addition to preschool story hours for children of all backgrounds.


School Library Journal: A beautiful Chinese dragon in several shades of red writhes across a double-page spread, accompanied by children carrying drums, cymbals, and strings of firecrackers-a fitting start for a concept book about colors.


Asian Review of Books: Picture books should excite children's imaginations, give parents and children something to talk about, and get the kids interested in colors, shapes, objects and activities in the world around them. Red is a Dragon does all this…Parents in Asia should be immensely grateful to such authors as Roseanne Thong who take it upon themselves to write culturally relevant children's books.


Publisher's Weekly:  The gentle primer Red Is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong, illus. by Grace Lin, does for colors what their Round Is a Mooncake did for shapes, in a felicitous meeting between East and West.

 

Awards

• "Best-of-the-Year" book award, University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Children's Book Center, 1992
  
  
• Featured Reading List Book 2002-2003, Florida Reading Association, Florida Department of Education, and Florida Association for Media in Education