Cover illustrated by Abbey
The Pet Dragon by Christoph Niemann
One day Lin received a present. When she opened it, out popped a baby dragon. Lin and the baby dragon did everything together. They played hide‐and‐seek, they made new friends, and they perfected their Ping‐Pong skills, and told exciting stories to each other. But then one day they were playing soccer in the house and broke a vase. Lin’s dad locked the dragon up in a cage. One day Lin went to check on her pet dragon. But when she opened the cage the dragon was nowhere to be found. So she went to look for him. When she came to a river she met a witch who was scared of water so she asked Lin to carry her across the river. Lin carried the witch across the river and the witch thanked her with a favor. She said, “I know what you are looking for” so she popped a magic bean into her mouth and chewed very slowly. Then she started to grow and grow and grow in till she was as big as a mountain. “Come here little Lin” in a booming voice Lin climbed into the giant witch’s hand. The witch lifted her through the clouds. Lin thought she could see ever thing! And there it was, her dragon all grown up and beautiful playing with the rest of his family. Lin rode her dragon home. Her father was so happy to see her. He said to the dragon “You two friends can visit when ever you want!” And they all celebrated with fire works. The purpose of this book is to cheer you up and teach you a few Chinese symbols. This is a happy cute story that is appealing to all ages. I liked this book and think you will too.
Look What Came From China By Miles Harvey You may be surprised about what comes from China that you use in your every day life. One thing that comes from China is paper. A man who worked for the emperor of China about invented paper 1, 900 years ago. Rice and ice cream were also invented in China. Noodles are a common treat and are another food invented in China . Are you wearing silk ? Silk was actually invented in China too. Did you know that porcelain
originaly came from China? You may have seen a panda bear at a zoo, they are also from China . When you go out to a restaurant you may use chopsticks, those are yet , another thing from China . I learned these facts after reading Look What Came From China by Miles Harvey. I would recommend reading this book. It provides interesting facts about this amazing place, China.
FuDog By Rumer Gorden
Max Dodson 1/19/12
In the book Li had just received a stuffed Fu‐Dog for her birthday. Her Great uncle had given it to her. The thing about the Fu‐Dog is he can talk to Li, but no one else can hear him. One day Li’s mom talks to Li about her Great Grand Uncle but the more Li hears about her grand uncle the more Li wants to see him. So she asks Fu‐Dog to tell her where Li’s uncle lives and he says that he lives in China town. The next day Li goes to China town on a train to find her uncle. Once she goes to China town she finds her Great uncle’s restaurant she realizes the door is locked, she knocks as hard as she can, no one can here her, after a while she is starting to get really cold. Then Fu‐Dog tells her to tie a message around his neck and slip him into the letterbox. Soon her Uncle finds Fu‐Dog in his letterbox and opens up the door for Li and her brother. Once they meet their grand uncle, he gives them a tasty Chinese meal of sushi, noodles and rice. He tells them that they came just in time for a carnival. The carnival is amazing but at the end of the carnival Li’s brother gets a broken arm and the crowd tramples Fu‐Dog. After that Grand uncle takes Li to Great Grand Uncle who takes Li to a gigantic secret garden that has many separate gardens. One is for roses and one is for tulips, but the most amazing thing about the garden is it is blooming; even though it is mid January. Then Great Grand Uncle calls his servant and gives Li a REAL Fu‐dog.
Abbey Thursday, January 19, 2012 Language Arts
The Empty Pot By Demi
The Empty Pot by Demi is about a boy who has a very green thumb, who especially loves flowers. Everyone else in the town likes flowers, including the Emperor. The Emperor was becoming to old, and needed to find an heir. He created a test to give every child a seed to grow. The one who pleases the Emperor with their flowers most take the throne. Ping (the little boy) took the seed and cared it a lot. No matter what he did to make the seed grow, it just would not grow! Everyone was surprised that
Ping could not make the seed grow, because he can make anything grow. A year had past and it was now time for all the children to show their plants to the Emperor. Everyone had beautiful flowers, and Ping only had an empty pot. When the Emperor saw all the flowers he was not pleased. When he saw Ping with the empty pot he was very pleased. He told Ping that he was the only one who had an empty pot, and he was the only one who was honest! All the seeds that the Emperor gave out were boiled so they could not grow. So, because of Ping’s honesty, he became the Emperor over all of China.
Julia January 19, 2012
The Boy Who Painted Dragons The Boy Who Painted Dragons is about Ping, a young Chinese boy. The story starts out by saying that dragons once lived in heaven, making “…thunder and lightning, flying comets, meteor showers, sparkling northern lights, and they made the rain fall to earth.” Their favorite game was finding “heavenly pearls of wisdom”, on which heavenly phrases would be inscribed. Then the dragons peered down from heaven and saw Ping painting dragons. Ping had once seen a picture of a dragon, and it became his worst fear. But soon he became obsessed with painting dragons, and painted them all over his house. The dragons thought that Ping painted them because he loved them, and so they were pleased. So pleased, in fact, that the Heavenly Dragon came down to greet Ping. Needless to say, Ping was terrified, and the Heavenly Dragon realized that Ping painted dragons not out of admiration, but of fear. The Heavenly Dragon left, and when Ping finally crawled out from under a chair (where he had been hiding), he saw three of the heavenly pearls of wisdom. One said, “SEEK YOUR TRUTH”, another, “FIND YOUR TRUTH”, and the last, “DARE TO BE TRUE”. Ping has a revelation and realizes that he has to confront his fears and look for the wisdom of the dragons in the powerful forces of nature. Ping then sets off to go to the Water Dragon, Fire Dragon, Earth Dragon, and Wind Dragon. At each one, the dragon rewards his courage with a pearl. After that, Ping really paints dragons out of joy, and joyfully.
Annabelle January 19, 2012
Thanking the Moon Written by Grace Lin
This book is about this girl’s family in China, who celebrates the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month on the solar calendar, which is usually
between September and October. Her family goes out on this night and has a night picnic. Other families do this as well to thank the moon.
Joe Van Alstyne Technology/ Library 1/26/12
A Ticket to China by Janet Riehecky
This book tells about how people live in China and what it looks like. I learned about their food and markets. Before it borders another country, there are mountains, deserts, rivers or seas. Most people travel by bicycle because some people cannot afford a car. In elementary school some classes or grades start with kids rolling their eyes to a tune of music. In kindergarten you always play games. The capitol of China is Beijing and it is behind the Great Wall of China. There are two main desserts in China. They are the Gobi Dessert and the Taklimakan Dessert. The Chang River is the third longest river. “Ma” has two meanings. One is mother and the other is grasshopper. I think that is very, very weird.
Micah January 18, 2012 The Magic Horse of Han Gan By Chen Jiang Hong The book is about a boy named Han Gan. He loves to draw but his family is poor so he can’t draw as much as he would like. He works at a inn to help his family get money to buy food. One day an artist, Wang Wei came to stay at the inn. Han Gan served him food when he went home he saw some horses and drew them in the dirt. Wang Wei came and told Han to see him the next day. Han went to Wang’s house. Wang was getting together a lot of drawing tools. Han thanked him and left. Han loved to draw horses he spent his free time drawing horses. The Emperor told him that he should go To the Academy for Official painters. Han did not want to paint what the eather students he only wanted to draw horses. His friends wanted to know why he draws horses. A warrior
came to his house and wanted a horse that can beat any other horse that lives. Han drew a horse, he didn’t like it so he was going to burn it, a horse sprang out the warrior jumped on the horse. The warrior won many battles on the horse. The horse got very sad he bucked the warrior off and ran away. The warrior chased after the horse. He went to Han Gan’s horse. He found the horse in a painting.
Daniel 1/19/12 The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
The Story About Ping tells about a duck that has a lot of relatives. He lives on a houseboat. One day, he doesn’t make it to the boat and has to sleep behind the
grass. When he wakes up he realizes that he is on the Yangtze River. Then a boy jumps out of a boat and grabs Ping. The boy’s dad says that they should eat Ping, but the boy says Ping is too beautiful to eat. The dad puts Ping in a basket. In the nighttime, the boy releases Ping back to the river. In the morning, Ping finally sees his relatives. He tries to get to the bridge, but he gets last and spanked.
The Great Wall Jack Beaty 1/14/12
The Great Wall is 4200 miles long! It was made in the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644. The highest part of The Great Wall is in Badaling, and it peaks at 3280 feet. The average height is 25 feet, but watchtowers are 30 feet higher. The Great Wall has a ton of watchtowers and signal towers spread out on it. The signal towers, well, signal. Soldiers light giant fires that warn if enemies are attacking. One fire meant that 100 enemies were attacking; two fires meant 500 were attacking, etc. If the Great Wall was lifted up and put down on the United States, it would reach from Denver, Colorado to Washington D.C. Tourists from around the world come to see the wall, and marathon runners come to race on half of it! The sections of the wall that are the most destroyed but are still there are the most famous to tourists, but personally I think that the sections that are completely intact are the most interesting.
The Great Wall of China
Christian
1-19-12
Dragon Dance by Joan Holub Illustrated by Benrei Huang
 
  The Dragon Dance tells about the Chinese New Year. The Chinese shop for fresh fish and blossoms.
They buy these products to celebrate on New Years! They sweep, mop, and dust the old year away. They decorate their homes for the holidays. Red dresses, Red shirts, Red envelopes, too, Red brings great luck
to you. They prepare the food for the feast. There’s duck, crab, and pork. Some people use forks other people use chopsticks. Not everybody is not good at using chopsticks like me, although I’m okay. Fact: I never knew this but they eat the noodles last! They hurry to watch the parades on the streets. Jugglers
toss balls and huge Lion puppets dance. The best of all things in the parade is the Dragon It’s long, red, and gold. They all wish everybody to have a year full of peace, luck and joy. That’s the Chine’s new year. Gung Hay Fat Choy! "May you become prosperous. "
These are dumplings.
Natalie Thursday, January 19, 2012 Summary of The Master Swordsman & The Magic Doorway Retold and Illustrated by Alice Provensen The retelling of The Master Swordsman & The Magic Doorway is a great book. It’s a story of a young man, Little Chu, in search of the emperor. He was searching day and night, until finally, he was ready to give up. Luckily, he didn’t. When Little Chu found the emperor, he was asked to paint a mural for a beautiful wall. When the mural was finished, the whole town was joyous. Finally Little Chu could come home. Before he left, the emperor was very pleased. When Little Chu painted the wall, he was no longer Little Chu, he was Mu Chi.
This is the cover of the book.