Brandon Goes to Beijing

By Eugenia Chu

This is my second year to participate in Multicultural Children’s Book Day. This is the book that I was gifted to review for the event. To learn more about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, see the information below my review.

*Some of the English phrases in this book are also written to the side in Chinese characters along with their pronunciations.

Hi! Do you know where your family is originally from? All of my family on my dad’s side is from The Netherlands. That makes my dad 100% Dutch! My mom has some Dutch roots, so that makes me over 50% Dutch. The family of Brandon, the main character in this story, is from China. One day, Brandon gets to go and visit them in Beijing. When he gets there, he catches up with his cousins and makes Chinese dumplings.

The next day, they go to visit The Great Wall of China (called Chàngchèng 萬里長城). On the wall, Brandon learned many fascinating facts about the Great Wall of China. Then the kids got up and played a game on it. While all of the other kids were running around, Brandon saw something. It was a panda! He pointed it out to his cousins, but by the time they looked, the panda was gone.

Brandon forgot all about the panda and went about his day. They went into rickshaws to view the Hùtòng. The Hùtòng are side-streets in the main streets of China and rickshaws are little carriages that take you around the Hùtòng. At one point, they stopped and saw a house in the Hùtòng. It had red lanterns everywhere and cages with birds inside that sang. And the house was filled with hand-carved furniture with pictures on them. It was a very fancy place! However, the thing that Brandon and his cousins loved most was the big, strange musical instrument that was sitting in the middle of the room. It was a Chinese zither. In the house, Brandon saw the panda again! He told people, but no one believed him this time, either.

Back at the apartment, Brandon slept fitfully thinking about the panda. Would they ever see the little guy again? As I always say, read the book to find out!

A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:

“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 1

“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor – zero having no yucky-lovey parts in it and five having major yucky-lovey parts): 0

I give this book 4 ½ wands.  
This book was awesome! However, at the beginning, I thought it was a little slow. But as the book went on, I really got into Brandon’s story and his adventure to find the xiòngmào (panda). It was really cool to hear about a different culture than my own. I would recommend listening to the audiobook by the author at http://eugeniachu.com. It helps with the pronunciation of the Chinese words of the story.

Source: Review Copy

Not An AR Book Yet

Book Level: 2-5

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2020 (1/31/20) is in its 7th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.

Seven years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues.

MCBD 2020 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board

Super Platinum

Make A Way Media/ Deirdre “DeeDee” Cummings,

Platinum

Language Lizard, Pack-N-Go Girls,

Gold

Audrey Press, Lerner Publishing Group, KidLit TV, ABDO BOOKS : A Family of Educational Publishers, PragmaticMom & Sumo Jo, Candlewick Press,

Silver

Author Charlotte Riggle, Capstone Publishing, Guba Publishing, Melissa Munro Boyd & B is for Breathe,

Bronze

Author Carole P. Roman, Snowflake Stories/Jill Barletti, Vivian Kirkfield & Making Their Voices Heard. Barnes Brothers Books, TimTimTom, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books, Charlesbridge Publishing, Barefoot Books Talegari Tales

Author Sponsor Link Cloud

Jerry Craft, A.R. Bey and Adventures in Boogieland, Eugina Chu & Brandon goes to Beijing, Kenneth Braswell & Fathers Incorporated, Maritza M. Mejia & Luz del mes_Mejia, Kathleen Burkinshaw & The Last Cherry Blossom, SISSY GOES TINY by Rebecca Flansburg and B.A. Norrgard, Josh Funk and HOW TO CODE A ROLLERCOASTER,Maya/Neel Adventures with Culture Groove, Lauren Ranalli, The Little Green Monster: Cancer Magic! By Dr. Sharon Chappell, Phe Lang and Me On The Page, Afsaneh Moradian and Jamie is Jamie, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, TUMBLE CREEK PRESS, Nancy Tupper Ling, Author Gwen Jackson, Angeliki Pedersen & The Secrets Hidden Beneath the Palm Tree, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 by Mia Wenjen, Susan Schaefer Bernardo & Illustrator Courtenay Fletcher (Founders of Inner Flower Child Books), Ann Morris & Do It Again!/¡Otra Vez!, Janet Balletta and Mermaids on a Mission to Save the Ocean, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo & Bruna Bailando por el Mundo\ Dancing Around the World, Shoumi Sen & From The Toddler Diaries, Sarah Jamila Stevenson, Tonya Duncan and the Sophie Washington Book Series, Teresa Robeson & The Queen of Physics , Nadishka Aloysius and Roo The Little Red TukTuk, Girlfriends Book Club Baltimore & Stories by the Girlfriends Book Club, Finding My Way Books , Diana Huang & Intrepids, Five Enchanted Mermaids, Elizabeth Godley and Ribbon’s Traveling Castle, Anna Olswanger and Greenhorn, Danielle Wallace & My Big Brother Troy , Jocelyn Francisco and Little Yellow Jeepney, Mariana Llanos & Kutu, the Tiny Inca Princess/La Ñusta Diminuta, Sara Arnold & The Big Buna Bash, Roddie Simmons & Race 2 Rio, DuEwa Frazier & Alice’s Musical Debut, Veronica Appleton & the Journey to Appleville book series Green Kids Club, Inc.

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts