Lunar New Year is celebrated by millions of people around the world. This Year marks the Year of the Snake. The Lunar New Year started on the 29th January. Celebrations started on New Years Eve (28th January) and will last for 15 days!
We’ve been learning fun facts about Chinese New Year though the power of storytelling.
A gorgeously illustrated introduction to Chinese New Year, written by Eva Wong Nava and illustrated by Li Xin.
Chinese New Year is right around the corner and Mai-Anne is so excited! As her family start decorating the house, there’s a knock on the door… her grandmother, Nai Nai, has arrived! They start their celebrations with a traditional meal filled with fish for good luck, noodles for long life, dumplings for blessings and a WHOLE chicken. Then after dinner Nai Nai tells the story of how Chinese New year began, with the Great Race!
”Join Mai-Anne as she learns about twelve animals and their special powers in the story of how Chinese New Year began! A beautifully illustrated introduction to the true meaning of Chinese New Year and family traditions for little ones.” Waterstones
Julia Donaldson claims the record for the bestselling author since records began!
Julia Donaldson has just surpassed JK Rowling to become the UK’s bestselling author (by volume) since records began in 1988!
Donaldson shifted just over 3.1 million copies in 2024 through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, moving over two million more units than Rowling during the past 12 months. This puts The Gruffalo co-creator’s lifetime sales at 48.6 million units, versus Rowling’s 48 million.
Rowling is still the UK’s all time best selling author by value by some considerable margin, having earnt £390.5m to date, £150 million more than Donaldson.
It is predicted that Donaldson could be the first author to sell more than 50 million copies, whilst Rowling should become the first author to break through the £400m threshold!
Children’s Word of the Year
The word ‘Kindness’ has been chosen as the Children’s word of the Year following a survey by Oxford University Press (OUP) of more than 6,000 children across the UK.
The OUP said that their research, surveying the opinions of children aged 6-14 across the Uk, revealed mental wellbeing to be a reason for some children selecting it.
When it comes to their favourite slang words, ‘slay’ came top, closely followed by ‘sigma.’
The terms ‘sigma’ and ‘skibidi’ were voted as second and third choices “highlighting the influential role social media plays on children’s language,” the OUP said.
Kindness is Children’s 2024 Word of the Year, says OUP – BBC Newsround
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