The Chinese Zodiac for Kids: 12 Year-by-Year Reading Lists

The Chinese zodiac — Sheng Xiao in Mandarin, the 12-animal cycle tied to lunar years — is one of the most joyful cultural inheritances an East Asian American parent can pass down. Each animal has personality traits, folklore, and an associated reading list. Here’s the complete set.

The 12 animals and their years

• Rat: 2008, 2020, 2032
• Ox: 2009, 2021, 2033
• Tiger: 2010, 2022, 2034
• Rabbit: 2011, 2023, 2035
• Dragon: 2012, 2024, 2036
• Snake: 2013, 2025
• Horse: 2014, 2026
• Goat: 2015, 2027
• Monkey: 2016, 2028
• Rooster: 2017, 2029
• Dog: 2018, 2030
• Pig: 2019, 2031

The origin story (for kids)

The classic Chinese zodiac origin tale: the Jade Emperor held a great race across a river. The order in which the 12 animals finished the race became the order of the zodiac. The Rat won by hitching a ride on the Ox’s back and jumping off at the finish line — which is why kids love the story. There’s cleverness, there’s animal friendship, there’s a moral about how big doesn’t always beat small.

Book to read: The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Christopher Corr.

Reading list by animal

Year of the Rat (cleverness, charm)

• Maisy’s Wonderful Weather Book (not zodiac-specific, but the protagonist is a rat)
• Any picture book featuring a clever small animal protagonist

Year of the Ox (reliability, strength)

• The Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
• The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

Year of the Tiger (bravery, vitality)

• Tigerella by Kit Wright
• The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
• Tiger in My Soup by Kashmira Sheth

Year of the Rabbit (kindness, gentleness)

• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• Rabbit & Robot series by Cece Bell
• Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

Year of the Dragon (leadership, magic)

• The Paper Kingdom by Helena Ku Rhee
• Last of the Name by Rosanne Parry
• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

Year of the Snake (wisdom, intuition)

• Verdi by Janell Cannon
• The Greedy Python by Richard Buckley

Year of the Horse (freedom, adventure)

• The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
• The Case of the Missing Cake by Shaun Taylor-Corbett

Year of the Goat (gentleness, creativity)

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff (classic)
• Goat Trouble by Tamara Hart

Year of the Monkey (playfulness, intelligence)

• Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
• Curious George series

Year of the Rooster (confidence, punctuality)

• The Little Red Rooster (various editions)
• Rooster’s Off to See the World by Eric Carle

Year of the Dog (loyalty, honesty)

• The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
• Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman

Year of the Pig (generosity, good-hearted)

• Charlotte’s Web (for older kids)
• Olivia series by Ian Falconer

The personalized zodiac book

One of our most-loved themes at Akoni Books is “The Year of [Zodiac Animal]” — a personalized story built around your child’s specific birth-year animal. They appear as the illustrated hero, with their zodiac animal as a companion or central character in the story.

For kids born in the Year of the Dragon, the book features a dragon. For kids born in the Year of the Rabbit, the book features a rabbit. Your kid sees themselves as the hero of a story that connects to the year they were born.

Create a zodiac-year book for your child →

How to use the zodiac with kids

The zodiac can be a lens for many things:

Birthday traditions. Each birthday, return to your child’s zodiac animal. Read one book featuring that animal. Discuss the traits it represents. Ask if they think they have those traits.

Friend-group stories. Ask your child which of their friends are which zodiac animal. It becomes a shared vocabulary for understanding personality.

Year-ahead predictions. When a new Lunar New Year arrives, check whose zodiac year it is. If it’s your child’s animal’s year, it’s supposed to be particularly meaningful for them.

Family trees. Build a zodiac family tree — which animal is grandma, which is dad, which is the baby. A fun cross-generational activity.

A note on personality superstition

The zodiac is sometimes framed as determining personality (“dragons are leaders, goats are creative”). Treat this gently with kids — as folklore, not fortune-telling. The zodiac is beautiful as a cultural inheritance and a reading framework. It’s less useful as a source of fixed identity claims.

A 12-year reading project

A fun parental project: over the course of 12 years (from your child’s 3rd to 15th birthday), read one book representing each animal of the zodiac. Start with your child’s own birth-year animal. Then work through the rest. By the time they’re in high school, your child will have a fluent relationship with the zodiac as a literary and cultural framework — not memorized, but lived.

Start with your child’s animal. Then the next one. One at a time, one year at a time.

Happy zodiac reading.