China is one of the oldest continuous cultures on earth, and it shows up in children’s books in every possible way: dragon dances and zodiac animals, an admiral who sailed the world before Columbus, the invention of writing itself, and quiet family stories set in a Shanghai courtyard. Whether your family has roots in China, a Lunar New Year celebration coming up, or a kid who just wants to know why there is a Year of the Rat, there is a book here to open the door.
We’ve gathered our favorite books set in China and sorted them by age so you can find the right one fast. There are sturdy board books for the littlest ones, folk tales that have been told for a thousand years, true stories of real Chinese painters and explorers, and chapter books that carry older readers deep into Chinese legend. Pick a few and you have the start of a wonderful shelf.
Board Books and First Words
The youngest explorers can meet China through everyday life and a few first words in two languages.
D Is for Doufu runs through the alphabet with a Chinese-culture twist, so your toddler meets doufu (tofu) at D and picks up a little of the language and the food along the way. I See the Sun in China is a bilingual picture book that follows a young girl from a small town on a day trip to visit her aunt in Shanghai, and the artwork is a real standout: vibrant collages built from photographs and paper cutouts. Read them together and a very young child gets both a first taste of Mandarin and a window into an ordinary, happy day in China.
Lunar New Year and the Chinese Zodiac
If your family celebrates Lunar New Year, or your kid keeps asking which zodiac animal they are, start here.
Chin Chiang has dreamed his whole life of performing the dragon dance, but when the Year of the Dragon finally arrives, fear nearly stops him cold. Chin Chiang and the Dragon’s Dance is a warm story about stage fright and the nudge it takes to push through it, and it captures the noise and color of a New Year celebration beautifully. Pair it with The Great Race, a lively retelling of the classic folktale in which twelve animals race to claim their spots on the zodiac calendar, each one’s cleverness or stubbornness deciding the order we still use today. Kids love arguing about which animal deserved to win.
Folk Tales and Legends
Every culture keeps its wisdom in its old stories, and China’s run deep.
You think you know Red Riding Hood, and then you meet the Chinese version. In Lon Po Po, three sisters are left home alone when a hungry wolf turns up at the door disguised as their Po Po, their grandmother, and it falls to the children to outsmart him. Ed Young won the Caldecott Medal for the artwork, and it earns every bit of that honor: the illustrations are shadowy and genuinely a little scary in the best way. This is a read-aloud that will have your kids leaning in.
For families who want to go deeper, Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories gathers a generous selection from the vast store of Chinese folklore and legend. Your kids will meet Chang-E, who flew to the moon, the mischievous Eight Immortals, and Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy, along with a cast of clever animals. Mingmei Yip’s retellings are warm and the illustrations are lovely. If you want one book that gives your family a real foothold in Chinese storytelling, this is a great place to begin.
Art, Writing, and Real Lives
Some of the best books about China are true, and they introduce kids to real people whose ideas still shape the world.
Who wants to practice plain calligraphy when your brush is meant for so much more? Brush of the Gods tells the story of Wu Daozi, who lived during the Tang Dynasty and grew up to be remembered as China’s greatest painter. In this telling, the creatures he paints keep coming to life and dancing right off the paper. Lenore Look gives it a sense of wonder, and it is a lovely way to talk with an artistic kid about where imagination can take a person.
Here is a story about the invention of writing itself. Cang Jie is a bilingual picture book about the official who, according to legend, served China’s Yellow Emperor around 2500 BC and created the first Chinese characters by watching the natural world and the tracks of birds, then turning what he saw into signs. It is a fascinating idea for kids who are just learning to read and write themselves, and the English and Chinese text side by side make it a natural pick for bilingual homes.
Set backstage at a Chinese opera, this one follows a little boy who wants nothing more than to join his father up on the stage, and slowly learns how much practice that dream will take. Father’s Chinese Opera by Rich Lo closes with an author’s note that grounds the whole thing in a real time and place. A good pick for a kid who is discovering that the things worth doing are usually hard.
Decades before Columbus set sail, a Chinese admiral named Zheng He commanded seven enormous expeditions that carried the reach of the Ming empire across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Great Voyages of Zheng He tells his story in bold picture-book form, and it is the kind of history that surprises kids (and plenty of grown-ups) who never learned that some of the world’s greatest voyages set out from China. A strong choice for a young explorer or a school report.
Chapter Books for Older Readers
When a reader is ready to stay in China longer, these carry them into legend and adventure.
Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan follows a thirteen-year-old boy who joins a camel caravan bound west along the Silk Road, carrying a piece of jade with strange writing that once belonged to the father who vanished years ago. It is part adventure, part mystery, and it moves through a China of deserts and bandit-haunted trading towns most kids have never imagined. A rewarding read for a middle-grade traveler who likes a quest.
Grace Lin weaves Chinese folklore into fantasy better than just about anyone writing today. In When the Sea Turned to Silver, a girl named Pinmei sets out to rescue her grandmother, the village storyteller, after the Emperor’s soldiers carry her away, and the old tales her grandmother told turn out to hold the key. Starry River of the Sky is set in a village where the moon has gone missing and only a runaway boy working at the inn seems to notice. Both are gorgeously written, threaded through with stories inside the story, and perfect for a reader who loved myths and wants more.
Keep Traveling
No single book can hold a place as old and as big as China, which is exactly why a whole shelf of them works so well. Start your reader with a zodiac tale and a folk legend, add a real painter or explorer, and let them find their own way in from there.