Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

Here’s a post from kid lit friend Teresa Robeson who I was fortunate to meet long ago and far away—before the pandemic, when we were just getting started on this journey. In her latest release about a favorite Chinese holiday, CHING MING, Teresa had to find a way to make a cultural story meaningful to kids from any background. This beautiful book is about celebration. And connection. Educators and parents, don’t miss the activities to do with your kids!

Teresa is offering a GIVEAWAY of a copy of CHING MING! Just leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing.

Congratulations to Lisa Connor, the winner of WHALES IN THE CITY from Nancy Castaldo!

Celebrating Connections by Teresa Robeson  

Holidays are magic! Regardless of whether you get days off for them (Thanksgiving) or they are just for fun (Halloween), holidays make memories. Just think back to your childhood and I’ll bet that some of your fondest recollections are from holidays. They certainly are for me.

When I take a walk down memory lane, the specific holidays that evoke the strongest warm, fuzzy feelings in me are ones from my culture, ones I experienced as a child in Hong Kong.

Many people in North America are familiar with Chinese New Year or the Mid-Autumn Festival. But the holiday that means the most to me is also one that is only second in importance to the Lunar New Year, and far more significant than the Mid-Autumn (or Moon) Festival.

Ching Ming is very special festival that has been celebrated for over 2,500 years by the Chinese people. It’s a festival of remembering and honoring our ancestors as well as one that embraces and emphasizes the importance of family.

What I loved most about it was both the gathering of relatives (being doted on by the adults was always a plus) and the yummy, yummy food. Special meats and dishes are prepared as symbolic offerings to ancestral spirits but then we, the living, get to actually eat it all.

While there are specific rituals for the festival, there can be family variations, like with any other holiday that kids in the U.S. are familiar with. And that’s the idea that I used as a spring board for writing CLEAR AND BRIGHT: A CHING MING FESTIVAL STORY.

I considered how Ching Ming compares to and contrasts with the kinds of holidays that kids here celebrate. Was what made my favorite one special to me similar to what made children like the ones they do the most?

Even though Ching Ming is very different than, say, Christmas or Thanksgiving, there are also parallels—they all involve family and food.

In addition, even within a particular culture, not everyone celebrates a holiday the same way. For example, some families open presents on Christmas Eve while others open them on Christmas Morn.

So, keeping all those thoughts in mind, I strove to write a story of an ancient tradition that mixes with the sensibilities and circumstances of the modern generation. While Ching Ming itself is unfamiliar to most kids here, the idea of getting together with family along with preparing and eating special foods should be something they can relate to. That familiarity is the key to drawing in kids.

Besides conveying “hey, we’re not so different after all,” I also wanted to weave in a little bit of history of the Chinese in America, though with a light touch because it’s not a history lesson. Nor did I want to dwell on the bad things that might increase a child’s anxiety particularly in these fraught times.

I modeled Lily, the narrator, after myself to share the emotions I felt as a child celebrating the holiday. I thought that focusing on the love of joy, family, and food, and sprinkling in some history, would make it accessible to kids and help them relate and empathize with people who might not be like them. And I’m glad that Astra Young Readers agree!

If you’re wanting to write about a holiday dear to you, you might want to consider the commonality factor along with a strong emotional pull to make a memorable (and sellable) tale.

Suggested activities:

After reading CLEAR AND BRIGHT to a class, a teacher can lead a lively discussion by asking kids to name their favorite holiday and then discuss what their particular family does for the occasion. An art activity can be added by asking kids to draw the favorite thing(s) about their favorite holiday.

If the class includes children from various cultures, that would lend itself to a deeper dive into learning about those different celebrations. And if the class is more homogeneous, the teacher can delve into the holidays from different countries by looking them up, say, for example, one unusual one for each month. A book such as Children Just Like Me: Celebrations! https://www.dk.com/us/book/9780789420275-children-just-like-me-celebrations/ is a great place to start.

Because holidays observance is such relatable topic for children, it’s the perfect window and mirror for them to learn more about other cultures and see how our celebratory similarities connect us.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below to get in the drawing for a copy of CHING MING! (US addresses only, please. Winner announced 3/28/25)

And if you enjoy a book, please support authors and illustrators by leaving reviews online. 😄 Thanks!