THE LUCKY RED ENVELOPE: A lift-the-flap Lunar New Year Celebration, welcome to the Year of the Fire Horse

THE LUCKY RED ENVELOPE: A lift-the-flap Lunar New Year Celebration
VIKKI ZHANG
Wide Eyed Editions (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$22.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: *Winner of the Society of Illustrators' 66th Annual Gold Medal*
Get ready for Lunar New Year, following a little girl and her family as they get ready for and celebrate the Lunar New Year festival.

With non-fiction information about the significance of certain rituals, but told through the excited eyes of a child, this is a book to return to year after year in the run up to the biggest festival in the Chinese calendar.

Each of the 12 spreads will feature 12 lift flaps, 144 in total.

Spreads include:
- See the little girl decorate the house with lucky red decorations
- Tidy the house to welcome in the new year
- Watch a special firework display
- Discover which animal year it will be
- Make festive dumplings with Nainai (grandma)
- Read a story about the zodiac with Yeye (grandpa)
- Watch a lion and dragon dance in the town square
- Make offerings to her ancestors
- And on the very last spread, have a traditional family reunion new year on the eve of Lunar new year and exchange lucky red envelopes.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Absolutely beautiful book! Stunning artwork making the cultural relevance of this ancient seasonal festival the US is finally learning deserves holiday attention.

Which is, of course, very upsetting to high-control people. I will not be surprised if there are opponents to this topic who are quietly working against its addition to library ourchases. Of course, interactive juvenile books don't last all that long...it's far better given as a gift to a lap-reader's lap-owner for an adult mediated experience.

Look at the way it's made:

The production values on this make me slack-jawed at the cover price. This is a complex printing and stamping job! It looks intuitive to me, which means someone designed it very carefully to work as a teaching tool.

What the story in these lovely pages does is illuminate this annual festival's cultural roots, its family-bond reinforcing uses, and its rituals in context.

Family focus is clear throughout the narrative. It's not didactic in its presentation, but sweetly organic as it unfolds the activities and actions the observances include. As a lap-reader's experience is likely to focus on acquiring this kind of information, I'd venture to guess the interactive bits will put it over the attention hump to becoming a favorite.

The Year of the Fire Horse started yesterday, 17 February 2026. It's the first one in sixty years; it has some very interesting connotations in East Asian cultures. I've linked an explainer in The Guardian for you to start learning the significance of the animal-year zodiac and its complementary elements that create each year's unique qualities. Even if you don't believe in zodiacs, the topic is a fascinating one to explore.

Aside from being culturally expanding, it is a beautiful and well-designed object to possess. I recommend it without reservation.