Lunar New Year Books for Kids (Plus a Personalized Option for the Year of the [Animal])

Lunar New Year is one of the most beautiful opportunities of the year to introduce children to East Asian family traditions — the dragon parades, the red envelopes, the cleaning rituals, the new-year wishes. For Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese American families especially, it’s the annual anchor that keeps their kids connected to heritage.

This guide lists the best Lunar New Year books for kids by age, then shows you how to make a personalized one where your child is the hero of their own zodiac-year story.

Ages 2–4: Foundation books

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

A simple, lovely introduction to Chinese New Year preparations for toddlers. Cleaning, cooking, waiting for the dragon.

Dumpling Day by Meera Sriram

Not specifically Lunar New Year, but dumplings are central — and this book celebrates dumpling traditions across cultures. Toddler-friendly.

Lunar New Year (board book) by Hannah Eliot

Simple primer on the sights and sounds of the holiday. For 1–3 year olds.

Ages 4–6: More narrative

The Nian Monster by Andrea Wang

The origin story of Lunar New Year — the monster Nian — retold for kids. With a modern-day Shanghai setting.

Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee

A girl and her grandma visit different zodiac animals to deliver good wishes. Introduces the whole zodiac in one book.

Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn

A Chinese American boy decides what to do with his red-envelope money. A modern story with warmth.

A Sweet New Year for Ren by Michelle Sterling

A girl wants to help her family prepare for New Year but is told she’s too young. Sweet family dynamics.

Ages 6–8: More depth

Our Lunar New Year by Yobe Qiu

Four families from different Asian cultures (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian) celebrating the holiday in their own ways. Great for showing kids that Lunar New Year is a multi-cultural celebration.

The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Middle grade. Pacy is a Taiwanese American girl navigating Lunar New Year traditions in her American life.

Tết: A Vietnamese New Year Story by Thu Bui

A focused Vietnamese perspective on the holiday.

Ages 8–10: Older kids

Chinese New Year: A Celebration for Everyone by Jen Sookfong Lee

Non-fiction introduction to the holiday’s history and traditions.

The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Christopher Corr

The origin story of the zodiac animals. Perfect for kids who want the “why does your birth year matter?” question answered.

The zodiac-themed personalized book

One of the most delightful Lunar New Year gifts for a child is a book built around their specific zodiac animal — the animal of the year they were born. At Akoni Books, our “The Year of [Zodiac Animal]” theme does exactly that.

Your child is illustrated as the hero of a story built around their birth-year animal — so a child born in 2020 (Year of the Rat) gets a Rat story, a child born in 2021 (Year of the Ox) gets an Ox story, and so on through all 12 animals. The story is generated specifically for their age and interests.

Popular variations:

Year of the Dragon story for 2024 and 2036 babies
Year of the Rabbit story for 2023 babies
Year of the Tiger story for 2022 babies

Each book is rendered in any of our nine art styles — including an Anime / Ghibli style that works particularly well for Lunar New Year themes.

Create your child’s zodiac-year book →

Lunar New Year activities for kids

Beyond reading, ways families celebrate with children:

Clean the house together in the days before — a traditional practice that’s genuinely good for kids to participate in
Make dumplings as a family — kids help fold, even badly
Wear red or a special outfit
Give (and receive) red envelopes — teach kids the custom
Visit a parade — most major US cities have them
Call grandparents who live far away, in their language if possible
Set a family intention for the new year

What the different Asian cultures do differently

Worth teaching kids: Lunar New Year is celebrated differently across cultures.

Chinese New Year / Spring Festival: Dragon dances, lion dances, red envelopes, nian gao (sticky rice cake)
Korean Seollal: Tteokguk (rice cake soup), wearing hanbok, the sebae bow to elders
Vietnamese Tết: Bánh chưng (square sticky rice cake), peach blossom decorations, ancestor altars
Mongolian Tsagaan Sar: White foods, nomadic family gatherings
Tibetan Losar: Monastic traditions, butter sculptures

A kid who grows up understanding that “Lunar New Year” is a family of related holidays, not one monolithic celebration, develops a more sophisticated sense of Asian identity.

A yearly tradition worth starting

Every Lunar New Year, add one new book to your child’s permanent Lunar New Year shelf. Write the year inside the front cover. By the time your child is ten, they’ll have a decade of Lunar New Year books — each one marking a year of family celebration.

And somewhere on that shelf, a personalized zodiac-year book with your child’s face on the cover.

Create a Lunar New Year book starring your child →

新年快乐 / 새해 복 많이 받으세요 / Chúc mừng năm mới. Whichever language your family celebrates in, may the new year bring your child closer to the traditions that made them.