Every Month Is a New Year: Celebrations Around the World

Happy New Year ... in July! This versatile collection of engaging original poems showcases New Year celebrations throughout the year and around the world.

In many places around the globe, the new year starts on January 1. But not everywhere! Chinese New Year is celebrated in January or February. Iranians observe Nowruz in March. For Thai people, Songkran occurs in April. Ethiopians greet the new year at Enkutatash in September. All these celebrations, and many others, have deep-rooted traditions and treasured customs.

Acclaimed poet Marilyn Singer has created a lively poetry collection that highlights sixteen of these fascinating festivities, some well-known and some less familiar. Together with Susan L. Roth's captivating collage illustrations, the poems take readers to the heart of these beloved holidays. Every month of the year, somewhere in the world people celebrate with joy and good wishes for a happy new year.

Marilyn Singer, recipient of the 2015 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, is the author of more than one hundred award-winning books for young readers, including Lee & Low’s A Full Moon Is Rising. She has enjoyed a variety of New Year’s celebrations—watching midnight fireworks in a city park, receiving red envelopes at a favorite Chinese restaurant, and eating honey cake with family on Rosh Hashanah. Singer and her husband live in Brooklyn, New York, and Washington, Connecticut. Her website is www.marilynsinger.com.

Susan L. Roth's vibrant mixed-media collage illustrations have appeared in numerous outstanding picture books, including Parrots Over Puerto Rico, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal; Prairie Dog Song; The Mangrove Tree; and most recently Every Month Is a New Year and Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words. Roth and her husband live in New York. Visit her online at susanlroth.com.