The Chinese New Year Helper

A young girl finds an exciting role for herself at the Chinese New Year celebration in her family’s restaurant. At last, she isn’t being told that she’s too young to help!

Jia’s family is busy preparing for the Chinese New Year feast at their restaurant in Chinatown, and Jia wants to take part. But each time she tries to help she’s told that she’s too young: too young to be in the kitchen, too young to light the lanterns, too young to carry the plates. And then the feast begins, and something wonderful happens. When Jia is scolded for getting too close to the exciting lion dance, one of the dancers swoops her up and into the costume, and suddenly she’s a part of the performance—a crucial part that saves the show. Never again does her family tell her that she’s too young to help!

Ying Chang Compestine grew up in Wuhan, China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which she has written about in her acclaimed novel Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party and her picture book memoir, Growing Up Under a Red Flag. She graduated from Central China Normal University with a degree in English, then earned her Master's in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is an award-winning author of 25 books (fiction, picture books, and cookbooks), a leading national authority on Asian culture and cuisine, a former food editor for Martha Stewart's Whole Living magazine, and has taught writing and sociology in both the U.S. and China. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband.

Ginnie Hsu is an illustrator and educator living in Upstate New York. Her work is often inspired by everyday life, nature, and her upbringing in Taiwan with her grandparents. When she is not in her studio, you can find her gardening, working at a local flower farm, or hiking with her husband and their dogs.