A Running List of Chinese-English Bilingual Children's Books And Online Stores
Besides creating my own, I’ve also spent quite some time looking for Chinese-English bilingual children’s books and/or children’s books about Chinese culture. I’ve assembled this list of what I’ve found so far, and hopefully it will help you save some time hunting for similar things. I’ll keep this list updated, so if you have other book suggestions, please let me know. This list only includes resources on physical books, not ebooks, CDs, and other multimedia format.
Disclaimer: Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links. I’ll make a small commission if you follow the links to Amazon and make qualifying purchases. There is absolutely no cost to you, and it doesn’t change your browsing and shopping experience on Amazon in any way. For more information, please see here.
Authors & Book Series (Alphabetical)
Cheryl Yau Chepusova & Big Cities Little Foodies series
This is an illustrated board book series, designed to share Asian culture and diversity with children. Each book is filled with vibrant and fun illustrations, to introduce little ones to early learning concepts, rich culture, and world travel.
Author Cheryl Chepusova is also a designer. As a Hong Kong native and city dweller, she has traveled around Asia and also lived and worked in Toronto, New York, and most recently San Francisco. She spends her days designing interactive digital products, and occasionally speaking, teaching, and writing about design and architecture. She enjoys reading with her two children, learning about the world together through picture books.
Her website: https://www.bigcitieslittlefoodies.com
These books are not available on Amazon, but you can purchase from their website and various indie bookstores listed on their website.
Edna Ma & Travel, Learn, and See Your Friends series
Edna is a physician anesthesiologist and mom, who was motivated to write a bilingual Chinese children’s book, inspired by her son’s friendship after he enrolled in a Mandarin immersion school. Although she is not a native speaker of Mandarin, she wanted to read to her children in Mandarin. She found a limited selection of books for this age group. So she created these stories to include English and Mandarin with pinyin, to facilitate different reading levels.
Her website:www.ednama.com
Her author page and list of books on Amazon: Here.
Eugenia Chu & “Brandon” stories
Eugenia is an attorney, turned stay-at-home mom, turned writer. She is a first generation Chinese-American citizen and lives in Miami Beach with her husband and son, Brandon, who is the inspiration for her stories. When Brandon was very little, she couldn’t find children’s storybooks to read to him which touched upon Chinese culture and included some Chinese (Mandarin) words and phrases to teach and/or reinforce his Chinese vocabulary, so she started writing her own.
Her website is http://eugeniachu.com
Her author page and list of books on Amazon: Here.
Hanna & Anne-Louise of Habbi Habbi - interactive bilingual children's books with reading wand
Hanna & Anne-Louise are two moms who wanted to make language learning easier for their own kids. They make Chinese-English, and Spanish-English bilingual interactive board books that come alive with a reading wand. Every inch of the book is tappable (the text, images, even the white space). The books cover various daily life related topics such as vocabularies, emotions, careers, and simple daily conversations.
Their website: https://www.
List of their titles & products: Here
F. B. Smit & Eeyagitales
F. B. Smit is a Korean-American author, playwright, presenter, and on-line teacher. She likes to share books, stories and interesting facts about Asian culture with young audiences and parents. Her passion is to make Asia come alive for her audience. She writes Korean/English and Chinese/English bilingual children's books.
Her website is: https://www.eeyagitales.com/
Her author page and list of books is here.
Katrina Liu & Mina Learns Chinese series
Katrina is an American-born Chinese mom. Committed to giving her daughter, Mina, the opportunity to become bilingual, she created Mina Learns Chinese series geared toward English speakers that focus on simple everyday dialog. Books are available in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese and include an audio reading in Mandarin.
Her website: https://www.minalearnschinese.com
Her author page and list of books on Amazon: here.
KidsJoy Series
This bilingual book series contains 5 books, each of which focuses on one traditional Chinese toy: little rattle drum, shuttlecock, kite, beanbags, and tumbler. The toys are introduced in stories between Dingding and Dangdang, two good friends who explore Chinese culture in their daily lives.
Their website: https://kidsjoycn.com/
See this series on Amazon: here.
Li Jian & Chinese Zodiac Series, and more
Li Jian graduated from Hebei Normal University in 2001, majoring in Chinese Painting. Formerly a middle school art teacher, children's book editor and a partner in an illustration studio, Li now owns his own illustration studio focusing on illustrations for children's fairy tales. He has many bilingual books about Chinese culture and stories, such as his Chinese Zodiac Series and the stories of Mulan and Zheng He.
His list of books on Amazon: here.
Marie Chow
She is a former teacher, education evaluator, and engineer. Her writing focuses on bilingual and English-only children's books that feature mixed families, as well as literary and contemporary fiction focused on Asian and Asian American characters. Here are her bilingual children’s books:
Her author page and list of books on Amazon: here.
Michele Wong McSween & Gordon & Li Li series
Michele is a mom, fashion designer, author and a fourth generation Chinese American. She never learned Chinese and wanted to be sure her own boys were confident with Chinese language and culture. After enrolling them in early-learning Mandarin classes, Michele looked for appropriate Mandarin bedtime reading and found that little was available. She created Gordon & Li Li series that teach simple Chinese words and phrases.
Her website:https://www.gordonandlili.com
Her author page and list of books on Amazon: here.
Peipei Zhou & Bao Bao Learns Chinese (Interactive Nursery Rhyme Book)
Baobao Learns Chinese is an interactive nursery rhyme book written in Chinese, English and pinyin. The songs in the book are sung by the very creator Peipei herself. She was born & raised in Shanghai and currently living in Brooklyn, NY.
Her Website: https://www.baobaolearnschinese.com
See this book on Amazon: here.
Virginia Yang & Jet’s Books
Growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Virginia Yang learned at an early age the importance of hearing Chinese tones to aid in fluency. She wanted cross-cultural bilingual books that she could read to her kid, so she created Jet’s Books. Jet’s Books hopes to teach children multiple languages while keeping Asian traditions and cultures alive with the next generation of Asian-Americans. Her first book is Jet Celebrates the New Year.
Her website: https://jetsbooks.com/
Her author page and the book: here.
Publishers & Online Stores
The following online stores have a collection of Chinese books, bilingual books, and books about Chinese culture for little children and young readers.