Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon
By Kat Zhang (2020)
Recommended age: 3-6 years old
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Review
This is a fun story, with a book that offers a lot of extra benefits. The author clearly cares about children and their growth and development.
This is one story in a series of five books at the time of writing. We have only read this story, but based on this one, we will look for the other stories sooner than later.
In this story, Amy, who is potentially a first grader or a little older, gets frustrated with a craft at school and has to work through a solution, even as the rest of her classmates had long finished their projects. For how the author has Amy handle this struggle, this alone is worth reading the book. And the illustrations are great, colorful and full of emotion and motion. Plus, depending on the little one being read to, he or she may be exposed to a different culture - something when done well and naturally, we love to have in a book. This is a good part of why we are interested in the rest of the series.
But in addition to the story, there are, under the front and back covers, guidance for parents on how to have the book have more of an impact through vocabulary, questions to engage the listener and activities to do. There are resources and organizations related to literacy listed too. Everything is aimed at fostering language and literacy skills in kids.
And just for fun, there is a little white kitten that shows up somewhere on every turn of the page. My little one would often giggle at the kitty.
Cautions
When this book is read to the slightly older little ones, I have no concerns. And our concerns may not be every parent’s concern. However, I read this one to my little one at a younger age and, for me, I was concerned about how my little one processed make believe and reality - mythical dragons versus the dragon Amy’s family and culture dances with in the classroom. I held off reading the book until in our discussions I could tell my little one knew the difference between fantasy and reality. My concern, which may not be a universal concern, was if we read it before my little one understood make believe, there was the potential when my little one figured it all out later my little one could feel misled, could develop trust issues, and I wanted to have her greatest moments of wonder and awe inspired by things that are around her in her world.
