The Great Race - The Story of the Chinese Zodiac

The Great Race - The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Dawn Casey

Traditional/Folk Literature

This book tells the story of how, many years ago, the Chinese Emperor decided that China needed a calendar. He decided to name each year after a different animal, but could not figure out how to determine the order. The Emperor decided that holding a great race across a wide river would be the best way to choose the order of the years, and he invited all of the animals in the kingdom to take part in the race. Thirteen animals compete in the race, but there are only 12 years in the Chinese calendar! The rat is the most clever of all the animals and crosses the finish line first. Then is the ox, the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the cockerel, the dog, and the pig. The cat was left out of the zodiac because he hates to swim and couldn't make it to the shore no matter how hard he tried. To this day the Chinese still use the order the animals finished in the race to name each year.

I think this book would be a really great way to talk about other cultures, especially around the new year. Since it is about something that everyone in the world experiences (the start of a new year) it is something that the students would really be able to compare. It would be a good jumping off point into learning more about the Chinese culture and how it is both different from and similar to the American culture. It is a fairly simple story and it would also serve as a really smooth transition into folk stories.