THE LUCKY RED ENVELOPE

A young Chinese girl and her family celebrate the Lunar New Year Festival in this lift-the-flap book.

Readers see what Yue’s family does on each day of the festival and learn the meaning behind various symbols and objects, resulting in an extremely comprehensive overview of the holiday. Red and yellow hues dominate Zhang’s bustling images, which burst with details to be pored over: the candles the family lights for the kitchen god; the sumptuous pork buns, candied lotus root, and eight treasure rice pudding they eat; and, of course, the red envelopes filled with money that are handed out to the children as gifts. Dozens of delicately illustrated elements are clustered on every page, with household objects, festive decorations, or celebratory symbols and patterns covering all available space. In addition to the few paragraphs of main text on each spread, small captions highlight specific items of cultural interest or ask readers to look for objects. Twelve flaps on each spread take the learning and looking even further. Some simply reveal the inside of the object on the flap, others explain a new concept, and some contain a seek-and-find item. Depending on readers’ attention span, this level of detail and visual miscellany may be overwhelming, or it may prove fascinating, worthy of many rereads.

Interactive and densely packed with information and images.