19 Best Books About the New Year for Kids Around the World
Ringing in the new year is a worldwide tradition and a special time for kids and families. It’s a time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the coming one, and there are lots of great books to help kids learn and get a great introduction to how people celebrate New Year in different countries worldwide! From traditional New Year’s stories to books about new beginnings and New Year’s resolutions, this book list is perfect for helping kids get into the New Year spirit and learn more about fun ways people celebrate New Year’s traditions.
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The Best Books About New Year for Kids Around the World
The Night Before New Year’s Eve by Natasha Wing
This sweet story follows a family preparing to celebrate New Year’s Eve together. It’s full of fun, anticipation, and New Year’s resolutions that kids can relate to!
Happy New Year, Everywhere! By Arlene Erlbach
In this book, kids can explore new year traditions from around the world. From Japan to China, children will learn about New Year’s customs and gain a new appreciation for New Year’s celebrations all over the globe!
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
The experiences of a little girl during the Chinese New Year of the Dog are chronicled in this exuberant book. Pacy learns that this is the year she is meant to “discover herself” while she celebrates with her family. As the year progresses, she attempts to identify her gift, meets a new best friend, and learns why the Year of the Dog may really be lucky for her.
Readers from many backgrounds will find this book interesting because of its universal themes of friendship, family, and discovering one’s vocation. This delightful debut novel is humorous and thought-provoking and has all the elements of a future classic.
New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story by April Halprin Wayland
A Rosh Hashanah Story is about the tradition of Tashlich–that of tossing bread into water to clear the slate for the New Year.
The 12 Days of Lunar New Year by Hannah Eliot by Jenna Lettice and Colleen Madden
With the Lunar New Year just around the corner, this joyful addition to the 12 Days series honors custom, culture, and family! Young readers will love listing all the ways they may become involved in their communities and pay respect to their ancestors and their caregivers. These books are ideal as gifts for youngsters since they have a simple rhyming tale, lovely graphics, and a full page of stickers.
Happy New Year, Mallory! by Laurie B Friedman
Mallory can’t wait to enjoy New Year’s Eve! She and Mary Ann have prepared the perfect winter reunion and New Year’s Eve celebration for her camp buddies visiting Fern Falls. Mallory, however, had not anticipated falling ill. Mallory is forced to spend the New Year in the hospital rather than at home with her loved ones. Mallory feels as though she is missing out on the excitement. Is Mallory in for a great New Year’s surprise, or is this the start of the worst year ever?
A New Year’s Reunion: A Chinese Story by Yu Li-Qiong
Every youngster who misses family members when they are gone will be able to relate to this moving, vividly drawn story, which received the renowned Feng Zikai Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award in 2009. It demonstrates how a family’s love can withstand time and separation.
Freedom Soup by Tami Charles
A custom that dates back to the Haitian Revolution is for Haitians everywhere to eat a special soup as they ring in the New Year. This year, Ti Gran is instructing Belle to prepare Freedom Soup in the same manner as she was when she was a little girl. Ti Gran tells Belle about the history of the soup, her family’s history, and Haiti’s history, where Belle’s family hails from, while they dance and clap while preparing the holiday meal. Belle’s tale and the history of the Haitian Revolution are vividly brought to life in this celebration of cultural customs passed down from one generation to the next by Jacqueline Alcántara’s beautiful pictures.
Every Month Is a New Year: Celebrations Around the World by Marilyn Singer and Susan L. Roth
January 1st, New Year’s Day, marks the beginning of the new year in various regions worldwide. But not all over! In January or February, people celebrate the Chinese New Year traditions. In March, Iranians celebrate Nowruz. Songkran takes place in April for Thai people. In September, Ethiopians ring in the new year in Enkutatash. These many celebrations of culture, region, religion, and many others have cherished traditions behind them.
A vibrant collection of poems by renowned poet Marilyn Singer features sixteen unique celebrations, some well-known and some less so. The poems transport readers to the heart of these cherished holidays together with Susan L. Roth’s engaging collage images. People worldwide celebrate with pleasure and well wishes for a beautiful new year every month.
Playing with Lanterns by Wang Yage
Zhao Di and her pals can’t wait to celebrate the Chinese New Year by going out with their paper lanterns at night. They take in the stunning colors while attempting to stay out of the wind and the sneaky boys in the village, each carrying a distinctively colored lantern with a lighted candle within. Zhao Di and her friends engage in this enjoyable custom every evening until the fifteenth day of the New Year, relishing the excitement of nightfall in their community. Then it’s time to smash the lanterns!
Shanté Keys and the New Year’s Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport
Shanté Keys adores January 1st! The black-eyed peas, however, were forgotten as Grandma prepared chitlins, baked ham, greens, and cornbread. Oh no, losing them will bring horrible karma and bad luck! So Shanté goes looking for some to borrow from the neighbors.
Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Miller
Squirrel is aware that January 1st is a perfect day to make resolutions! However, what exactly does it mean to make a resolution? She learns about New Year’s resolutions as she stops at various places throughout the forest and assists her pals in beginning theirs. If only she could come up with a resolution of her own.
Dragon Dance: A Chinese New Year LTF: A Chinese New Year Lift-the-Flap Book By Joan Holub
An excellent introduction to Lunar New Year traditions. Together, parents and young readers may enjoy this interactive lift-the-flap book.
There are so many enjoyable activities to do during the Lunar New Year! The nicest part of the Lunar New Year’s celebrations is watching the stunning parade after shopping for fresh flowers at the outdoor market, sharing a New Year’s meal with the entire family, and getting red envelopes from grandparents.
The Lucky Grapes: A New Year’s Eve Story by Tracey Kyle
Rafa is eager to stay up all night to ring in the New Year with his family at the square on this New Year’s Eve in Spain. There will be grapes, fireworks, and music, perhaps? Rafa learns that to bring good luck into the New Year, he must consume a little grape with each of the twelve midnight bells. Can he accomplish it? Will he manage to see midnight?
Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn, Cornelius Van Wright, and Ying-Hwa Hu
A little child visits a homeless person around Chinese New Year and learns that when a special gift is given from the heart, it is never too small. Sam is ecstatic to accompany his mother in shopping. On the occasion of Chinese New Year, his grandparents gave him the traditional present of lucky red envelopes known as leisees (lay-sees).
Sam is now old enough to spend this year in any way he pleases. The best part is that he gets to spend his lucky money in Chinatown, his favorite neighborhood! Sam is thrilled, but his joy quickly turns to despair as he discovers that the present from his grandparents won’t be sufficient to buy the items he wants. Sam is urged by his mother to appreciate the gift, but he isn’t persuaded until he has an unexpected interaction with a stranger.
Super Korean New Years with Grandma by Mary Chi-Whi Kim
This children’s book, written and drawn for ages 5 to 7, honors grandmothers, superheroes without whom none of us would exist, and the cultural traditions they uphold that bind and support families over time and place. The millennia-old Korean New Year’s practice is a perfect example of the worldwide significance of multi-generational families and immigrant roots.
Bear’s New Year’s Party: A Counting Book by Paul Owen Lewis
One whale, two horses, three cows, and so on till midnight are among the guests at a dashing polar bear’s beautiful New Year’s celebration, to which he has invited all of his animal pals. In this fun story, children learn to tell time AND count as each party animal arrives in this fun book for young children.
Chelsea’s Chinese New Year by Lisa Bullard
Chelsea enjoys an extended bedtime, a big meal with her family, and watching a parade with a dragon and fireworks! Discover the various ways that people commemorate this unforgettable day!
The Nian Monster Hardcover – Picture Book by Andrea Wang
Tong tong! This Chinese New Year has seen the famous Nian monster reappear. Nian is set on devouring Shanghai, beginning with Xingling, and has horns, scales, and huge, vicious teeth. The tried-and-true methods to keep him away from Nian no longer work, but Xingling is smart. Will her fast thinking be sufficient to protect the city from the Nian Monster?
If you’re looking for new books to read with your kids to celebrate the New Year, these 10 books are sure to be a hit! From exploring New Year’s traditions around the world to familiar stories about New Year’s resolutions, these books will get kids excited about ringing in the new year. Happy reading!
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