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.

TREE SPIRITS (2nd edition) is a great gift for your youngest, lap-sitting reader

TREE SPIRITS
LOUISE WANNIER (illus. April Tatiana Jackson)
True Roses Books
$24.95 trade paper, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Tree Spirits is an interactive picture book that encourages creativity, social emotional intelligence, and seeing the world with fresh eyes. Encouraging children to develop their imagination, creativity and emotional intelligence.

With 25 color photographs of trees, the rhyming text asks, “What do you see when you look up at this tree?” inviting a child to use their imagination. Turning the page reveals an illustrated overlay of a charming animal inspired by the lines and shapes of the tree bark. Each animal introduces a different emotion helping children to understand their own inner spirit and feelings.

For parents and grandparents and friends and family it is a fun book to read with the children in their lives. The book includes 4 sheets of tracing paper to invite them to begin drawing what they see and ends with encouraging children to go out and look at the trees in their neighborhood and keep noticing, “What do I see?”

LOUISE WANNIER “Safta”—“Safta” is Hebrew for grandmother and, as of this printing, she is very lucky to have five grandchildren. As an artist, Louise is fascinated by observing patterns and loves the discovery of how the camera shifts the focus and emphasis from what our eyes natively see. Beautiful illustrations by talented Graphic Artist April Tatiana Jackson.

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

My Review: Cool little book for very, very young readers, and pre-readers with grandparental help. Accustoms kids to observing, and interpreting their observations, not just staring at things in their worlds. It's got beautiful images of trees, which is always a good thing to expose a child to; it's got drawn overlays to point up the author's intended images to be found when looking at the tree photograph...and because it's an overlay it is a separate experience from just looking at how beautiful the trees are.

This is an absolutely delightful lap-book for your smallest family member. Start at about two or three, it seems to me.

Enjoy the first pages of the book.

It's beautiful, it's got a great message all our descendants need to hear, process, and internalize, and it's exactly right for Yule gifting.