The Little Bear Books by Else Holmelund Minarik was one of the first set of “real” books that my daughter read in Chinese! The Chinese version of the Little Bear books was a big milestone for my daughter, and I think it is a wonderful series for beginner readers. We stumbled upon the Little Bear books almost on accident. A couple years ago, a mom in a bilingual Facebook group shared recordings of her narrating the Little Bear stories. I had been listening to the narration for myself to learn Chinese, but my daughter was very intrigued. Since she asked to hear the stories over and over again, I realized I should buy the paperback set! These books are originally written in English and have been translated to both simplified and traditional Chinese.
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Little Bear Books《小熊》by Else Holmelund Minarik
- 作者 (Author): Elsa Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak
- Where to buy:
- Simplified Chinese
- Taobao
- China Sprout
- Traditional Chinese
- English
- Simplified Chinese
Little Bear Book Titles
- Little Bear 小熊
- A Kiss For Little Bear 给小熊的吻
- Father Bear Comes Home 熊爸爸回家
- Little Bear’s Friend 熊的朋友
- Little Bear’s Visit 熊探亲
Book Review
Little Bear《小熊》is an anthropomorphic series of stories centered around a bear, his parents, and animal friends (eg, chicken, cat, duck, owl). The old-fashioned stories have gentle humor and are adorable for young children. The setting is regular, everyday life of 小熊, and the animals talk about topics such as wearing clothes, going fishing with dad, celebrating a birthday, imagination, and friendship. Since the series was originally written in English, the content is relatable for non-native learners such as our Chinese-American family.
In both English and Chinese, the story line has quite a bit of repetition, which makes it great for reading practice. Beginner readers will have a chance to re-read unfamiliar Chinese characters throughout a chapter. Some pages have only a couple lines of text while others are filled with text. The font is also larger than most picture books with generous spacing between each line.
However, there is still an ample amount of illustrations which are soft on the eyes and have lovely detail that supports the text. Therefore, these are great “bridge books” to help kids gain confidence and reading stamina as they transition from simple picture books to chapter books.
A few parents have told me that the stories are too repetitive and therefore mundane for their child, so you have to consider your child’s preferences and interests. Overall, the books seem to have positive reviews in both English and Chinese. I would also consider the amount of animal-based stories that you have at home, as I think it’s important to have a balance of realistic, human-based stories that children can identify with.
A note about the English version of the Little Bear Series
The English books are categorized as I Can Read Series Beginner Level 1. Since we are mainly focusing on Chinese learning at home, we have not yet read the English versions of the Little Bear Minarik books. However, I bought 3 of the Minarik books in English and noticed that the flow and layout of the books seem to be identical to the Chinese translation! The Little Bear’s Visit story has a Caldecott Medal that is printed flat on the cover of both the Chinese and English versions. I think this will be a great set for my daughter to read in English in the future and compare notes with our translated Chinese books!
What’s inside the Little Bear Books?
Take a look at the photographs that I have shared below or consider borrowing a copy at your local library to see if your child might be interested in this set! I have included the 3 English books that we have for comparison.
Our experience with the Little Bear books《小熊》by Else Holmelund Minarik
After completing the Sagebooks and Greenfield reading curricula as well as learning through our hands-on activities, my daughter and I read explored these stories when she was age 3 years 10 months until she was about 4 years 3 months old. We listened to all of the stories and read most of them on and off during this time period when she doing the 四五快读 curriculum.
In terms of reading difficulty, the books are not graded readers, so they have no particular progression in terms of complexity. Actually, two of the easiest stories are 小熊 and 给小熊的吻. The 小熊 was easy for my daughter because it mainly discusses different types of clothing, and my daughter had learned how to read most of clothing-related characters from our Clothing Flashcards for Pretend Play & More {Free Printable}. The other stories had a few new Chinese characters per story. Therefore, we didn’t read the stories in order and just read whatever story that my daughter felt like listening to.
When my daughter first started the series, although there were only a handful of new characters per chapter, she was quite intimidated by the full pages of text scattered throughout the book. During and after completing 四五快读, her reading stamina and confidence improved significantly, and she was more comfortable with the Little Bear series.
Recently, I have been taking these stories out again because my 2-year-old son likes animal stories. He really likes the illustrations and the repetitive nature of the writing, often echoing what I am saying. He only knows a few simple Chinese characters (eg, 小) and likes to point them out when he notices them!
Here is a picture of something I drew on our Melissa and Doug easel to help my daughter remember new Chinese characters from one of the stories!
Videos of my daughter reading Chinese
You can listen to my daughter reading Little Bear in Chinese in this post which shows the progression of her reading from age 3.5 years until age 5. Sometimes when I feel like we aren’t making much progress in the hustle and bustle of real life, looking back at the videos gives concrete evidence that she has learned so much over time!
In summary, if your kids don’t mind animal stories with repetition, I recommend the Little Bear books for Chinese and English reading practice. A wide range of relevant vocabulary is introduced with each story, and the relationships and illustrations are so sweet!
FREE CHINESE AUDIOBOOKS
Ximalaya FM has thousands of Chinese stories for children for free! Our favorites are listed in this post. Since the entire website and app is in Chinese, please refer to this guide if you cannot read Chinese.
WHERE TO BUY CHINESE BOOKS FOR KIDS
For more Chinese book recommendations for kids, please visit and bookmark this link of our favorite books! Every week, I will be adding book reviews to this website!
If you’re wondering where to buy Chinese books for children, please click here for a list of the most popular online bookstores!
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES ABOUT HOW TO TEACH KIDS CHINESE
If you need tips on how to teach your child Chinese, these posts are for you!
- Teach Your Child a Second Language at Home with 5 Key Steps
- Raising Multilingual Children as a Non-Fluent Parent: 7 Lessons Learned
- How To Get Your Child To Speak the Minority Language
- Encourage A Child to Love and Speak the Minority Language with 5 Strategies
- When and How to Introduce Chinese Characters to Kids?
- How to Learn Chinese as a Busy Parent: 10+ Strategies
- How to Find a Foreign Language Teacher for Your Child
- 10 Ways to Encourage Your Child to Read
- A Letter to My Parents: Why I’m Teaching Your Grandchildren Chinese
RECOMMENDED BILINGUAL FACEBOOK PARENTING GROUPS
As always, please let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll try my best to answer them! Please leave a note in the comments! I also highly recommend reaching out to parents in Facebook support groups:
- Montessori-inspired Kids Learning Chinese and English
- Christian Parents Raising Bilingual Children in English & Chinese
- Raising Bilingual Parents in Chinese & English
You can also follow me on Facebook where I share my latest posts as well as favorite articles about children’s education, Chinese resources, and hands-on activities from other websites! In addition, on Instagram, I share activity highlights and how we integrate Chinese-learning in our daily family life!
Happy reading, friends!
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