Asian Spice Kids: Star Anise, Superstar! {Giveaway}

Being an almost 100% English speaking household, I'm more than little concerned about my kids' ability to master the Chinese language.

It's not that we haven't tried speaking more Chinese at home. In fact, when Noey was born, we seriously considered having one parent speak exclusively to him in Chinese. Except, erm, have you heard me speak Chinese? Right. I really didn't want any child of mine growing up speaking the kind of Chinese that I was speaking, with my limited vocabulary and questionable sentence structure. 

Noey's Chinese today is of a decent standard. About 40% of his school curriculum is conducted in Chinese and he has an English teacher and Chinese teacher in class with him the entire time, so I think he gets a fair bit of exposure to the language at school. I've beefed this up by sending him for Chinese enrichment class. (But of course. I am Singaporean after all.) I persist, not just because Chinese is compulsory learning in Primary and Secondary school, but because I fundamentally think that being Chinese, we need to know Chinese. My son's various attempts to insist that we are English, notwithstanding. 

I've always found reading Chinese books to be a great way to cultivate a love for the language. So I was very happy when I was approached to review Star Anise, Superstar! (八角，超级明星!), the first book by author Linn Shekinah in her bilingual series, Asian Spice Kids (亚洲辛香小孩). My kids were equally chuffed.

From the title, you would probably have guessed that the main characters in the story are Asian Spices. Star Anise is the star (ahem) and protagonist of this first title. Perhaps in a bid to live up to her name, Star Anise has big dreams of being a superstar, and goes all out to garner attention. Unfortunately, all this does is rub everyone else, from the other Spice Kids to the audience, the wrong way. Star Anise leaves in tears and disgrace, but redemption comes to her later when she learns what it means to be a true star.

Both kids enjoyed the book, Noey in particular, since at 5 years of age, he is better placed to understand the underlying message of the story. He grabbed the book when it arrived and devoured it, then immediately asked me for the second volume! He read it in English, naturally, but I was glad that he was still interested when I read the book to them in Chinese. I needed my trusty iPhone dictionary to do this effectively, but I'm glad I did it, as certain portions of text came across better in the more emotional Chinese language. I was happy to note in this regard that the story had been properly written in Chinese, and not simply loosely translated from English.

At the end of the book, there is a glossary which explains certain terms in English and Chinese, with the hanyu pinyin included. I found this really useful, and Noey, who is rather adept at hanyu pinyin had fun figuring out and translating the terms.

Another cool feature of this book is the nifty little handout that comes with it, with instructions for a snakes and ladders game, a word matching game and a little quiz. Noey really liked the simple snakes and ladders game and has made me play it repeatedly! There are also additional free downloadable activities available at www.asianspicekids.com.

I knew the book had really made an impact when, at a recent preview of the new children's science centre Kids Stop, Noey pointed out a little section on spices and excitedly told me, "Look Mummy! Asian Spices! There are 4 of them here!". He could even name a couple in Chinese, which I was particularly happy about.

We're looking forward to the next few books!

Asian Spice Kids: Star Anise, Superstar! is the first title of the The Asian Spice Kids series by local author Linn Shekinah and sponsored by the Ministry of Education's Lee Kuan Yew Bilingualism Fund. Each book in this collection of five pre-school bilingual picture books is written in dual languages and comes in two versions -- English-Chinese and English-Malay. Recommended for ages 4 to 8. You can purchase a copy of Asian Spice Kids: Star Anise, Superstar! at all major bookstores. The English-Chinese version is also available at Flip For Joy for $16.50.

GIVEAWAY!

TWO LUCKY READERS of this blog will walk away with a copy each of Asian Spice Kids: Star Anise, Superstar! To stand a chance of winning, simply follow the steps in the Rafflecopter widget below. The more steps you complete, the higher your chance of winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway ends on Friday 30 May 2014 and is open to Singapore residents only.