Celebrate Lunar New Year
On February 1st, the Lunar New Year will be celebrated around the world. Welcome the Year of the Tiger with award-winning and New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Grace Lin, and the Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ) during a virtual program on January 25th at 4:30 p.m.
During the program, students in grades K-3 will digitally connect with Lin as she shares samples of her works, explains customs and stories around the Lunar New Year commemoration, as well as leads participants in an interactive drawing demonstration and Q&A session.
From illustrating to writing, the author of over a dozen children’s books, has loved creating books since she was a child. Lin realized she “wanted to be an author and illustrator forever,” after winning fourth place in a national book making competition when she was in the seventh grade.
“There is something about stories and storytelling, and the need to communicate and share that is inherent in all humans,” said Lin. “Reading a book takes a concept that might seem foreign, and makes it familiar. When you use a book as a shared experience, it takes what is unfamiliar and makes it familiar.”
The author, an advocate for diversity, aspires to encourage children to embrace their own unique identities and cultures, as well as explore others.
“I hope kids who read my books realize that heritage is something really wonderful and something to treasure,” she said. “I hope it gives kids a glimpse into how wonderful and how magical it can be to see and experience things from other points of view and other identities. Reading books are magical and wonderful windows into other cultures.”
In 2021, Lin won the Children’s Literature Association Phoenix Picture Book Award for her 2001 release, Dim Sum for Everyone!. The award recognizes a work first published 20 years earlier “that did not win a major award at the time of its publication, but from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special attention.”
The book tells the story of a young girl visiting a bustling restaurant in Chinatown with her family, where they share and enjoy variations of traditional Chinese dumplings, buns, and small snacks known as dim sum.
Attendees are encouraged to read Lin’s books, The Year of the Dog and/or Bringing in the New Year, prior to the program.
For more information or to register for the virtual program, visit: sclsnj.libnet.info/event/5663371.
