The Day the Dragon Danced
Author: Kay Haugaard
Illusrtator: Carolyn Reed Barritt
Publisher: Shen’s Books
Copyright 2006
28 Pages
Fiction/ Chinese Culture
This book has so many bright colors that I wanted to pick up the book just to see what the subject was. Seeing that the subject was a Chinese celebration I decided to read further into the book. The Day the Dragon Danced is about a young girl and her grandmother going to see the Chinese New Year’s Day Parade. The grandmother is not very happy about seeing a dragon; however, the young girl is excited because she has learned so many new things about the Chinese New Year from her teacher and she wants to see her father in the parade. Once the parade starts and the girl and her grandmother see the dragon they notice that it is not dancing. The girl then notices that her father’s shoes are untied and he is having trouble keeping up with the dancers under the dragon. The little girl runs under the dragon and ties her father’s shoe and soon the dragon is dancing again and chasing the sun.
The illustrations in this book seem to have been completed using oil paintings. The illustrator chose to use many rich colors that are vibrant and stand out to the reader. There are not many small details in the illustrations. There is also not any negative space throughout the book; instead, the illustrator chose to make each page bright and colorful. The text placement varies throughout the book from very formal to informal.
The Day the Dragon Danced is appropriate for any student of any age. Most all students would enjoy the story of the young girl and learn about the Chinese culture. Teachers can use this book in the classroom to teach about being accepting of other cultures and about the Chinese culture. Showing the students the similarities and differences between our culture and the Chinese culture will help students accept the differences between the two and be more accepting towards people from that culture.
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