Yang's New Dance

All Ages

Birth - 12 months

Yang's New Dance

by Alphabet Kids

The Alphabet Kids books follow the adventures of Allegra, Elena, Isaac, Oni, Umar and Yang, a group of children having fun while learning about the diverse aspects of their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The stories are intended to help children love who they are, and realize that people who are different can be very good friends.

Age: 3 Year-olds | Title: Yang's New Dance | Author: Alphabet Kids | Publisher: Alphabet Kids

Why we chose this book

Yang is one of the Alphabet Kids, a group of kids from the Alphabet Afterschool Center who have fun learning about the languages, celebrations, food and music of one another's cultures. In this story, Yang brings his grandfather from China to class to teach the Alphabet Kids about tai chi. The kids loved the gentle movement based on nature, and even their teacher, Mrs. Peters, joined in! Basic Chinese words, such as Ni hao (hello), xie xie (thank you), laoshi (teacher) and many more, are sprinkled throughout the story. The illustrations are high gloss, computer-colored pictures with vibrant, fun color contrasts. The book is also a convenient small size, perfect for an outing.

Your child is bound to have questions about this book. They may want to know more about tai chi and what it feels like. Go ahead and stand up and give the moves that the Alphabet kids are doing a try. Perhaps you already do yoga, so you could show your little one some yoga moves and relate the relaxing feeling and gentle movements to those of tai chi. Another fun thing to try from the book is pronouncing the Chinese words. The back cover shows the Chinese words in English, spelled phonetically, followed by the Chinese symbol. This exposes your child to another language in sound and sight. Finally, you can stress some of the secondary lessons from the story, such it's okay to play alone sometimes, as Yang is doing at recess with his action figure. And, it's okay to be competitive, like Allegra and Isaac, so long as it remains friendly.

My three year-old friend, Sam, was quite excited about trying out the tai chi moves as soon as we finished the story. However, Sam's tai chi quickly turned into karate. I tried explaining that there was a huge difference between the two, but reasoning with a three year-old having a blast with karate chops is not usually very successful.

--Audra

About the creators

Allegra Joyce Kassin is the creator of the Alphabet Kids concept. She is a devoted mother of five and grandmother of seven. With a strong belief in family values and deeply committed to multicultural understanding, she brings unique vision, clarity, continuity and extraordinary leadership to the Alphabet Kids team. She is involved in every aspect of development of the Alphabet Kids characters and their stories. She has brought them to life to share with the children of the world! Allegra Joyce has been engaged in wide ranging philanthropic activities from childhood well-being and health to community development and educational enrichment for over thirty years.

Patrice Samara is co-author of the Alphabet Kids books and Executive in Charge of Development. An Emmy Award-winning producer and United Nations NGO Representative, she has with over twenty years expertise in communications and entertainment. She has won over fifty awards for creativity and excellence including two Parent’s Choice Awards and the 2010 Global Citizenship Award for Helping Humanity from Orphans International. Patrice combined her dedication to educational equality, literacy, and multiculturalism utilizing her global resources to make the Alphabet Kids a virtual celebration of diversity.