Almost a year ago, despite being illiterate in Chinese, I taught 老大 (lǎodà / oldest child) how to read Chinese at age 3. Now 老大 can read short stories on her own, and I can read almost as well as her! This dream came true thanks to Sagebooks Sage Formula Beginner 500.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Sagebooks HK and have received no compensation for this review. All opinions here reflect my personal experience.
Review of Sagebooks Chinese for Kids Beginner 500
I first heard about Sagebooks through other parents (eg, GuavaRama and Mandarin Mama) who successfully taught their children how to read traditional Chinese characters. Grateful for their recommendation, I wanted to echo our positive experience with learning simplified Chinese.
ISBN:
- Simplified Chinese with pinyin and English 基礎漢字500 简体版 – 9789888239726
- Traditional Chinese with pinyin and English 基礎漢字500 繁体版 – 9789888239733
Author: Lucia L. Lau
Publisher: Sagebooks HK
What is Sage Formula Basic Chinese 500?
This story-based curriculum for children teaches the most commonly used 500 Chinese characters. The books are color-coded into 5 sets:
- Blue = Beginning Reader
- Green = Budding Reader
- Orange = Building Reader
- Pink = Confident Reader
- Red = Fluent Reader
Each set has 5 books with 20 lessons per book (5x5x20=500 Chinese words).
Take a look at the video below to preview the first book (traditional Chinese version).
Why do we recommend Sagebooks?
- Spaced Repetition: Retention occurs naturally while the reader gains confidence from practicing familiar words in various sentences:
- Each lesson focuses on 1 new character and begins with an enlarged character showing stroke order.
- The new character appears several times within a lesson
- Subsequent lessons build on earlier lessons
- Context: Except for the first lesson, new words are always introduced with earlier words so that children are learning how to read phrases and sentences immediately. This is better than the flashcards which offer no context.
- Large font: The Chinese characters are in large font while the pinyin or Zhuyin and English are in small font. As a result, the characters are the main focus.
- Simple illustrations: The cartoons serve as contextual prompts for new words, but their simplicity keeps the focus on the characters. Initially, the pictures may seem random, but 老大 quickly noticed that the same family, friends, mountain, and animals are present throughout the series. Also, 老大 noticed that all females have pink ovals on their cheeks while all males have swirls.
- Audio/Video:
- Recordings of a native Mandarin speakers reading each book are available for download on their website.
- They also have a YouTube channel where you can preview their books.
- Parent guide: A complete guide is available on their website in both English and Chinese with detailed tips on how to incorporate Sagebooks into your daily routine.
- Freebies: Free coloring pages, writing grids, and other learning resources are available on their website.
- Customer service: I’ve contacted them a few times by email and through their Facebook page with quick replies each time. For example, although I had ordered all of our books through China Sprout who had sent one of our sets without a box cover, Sagebooks HK immediately shipped me a brand new replacement!
How did we use Sage Formula Basic 500?
老大 knew a little over 100 basic Chinese characters before starting Sagebooks through various activities.
老大 and I read 1-2x per day for a few minutes at before her nap and again at bedtime. At the start of each lesson, we traced the new character with our fingers following stroke order. Then, we would take turns reading each page. I’m so glad that we bought the whole set because 老大 was very motivated to progress to “the next color”. She would peek at the pictures and be curious to learn about the next stories. Every day, she read the books in the bathroom and car, and we completed the 4th book (pink confident reader) after about 3 months.
However, we had to take a break before the 5th book (red fluent reader) as my daughter was going through an anti-reading phase. During this time, we focused on hands-on Chinese activities to rekindle her interest. After a few weeks, we got back into our reading groove and finished the last set.
One concern I had with the speed at which we finished the series was long-term retention, but 老大 retained almost all characters and can read many other books independently! However, Sagebooks recommends that most children should not rush and would benefit from 1 lesson per day, thereby completing the series within 18 months.
Here are pictures of the simplified Chinese books we used:
Sagebooks Beginning Reader (Blue), Simplified Chinese
Sagebooks Budding Reader (Green), Simplified Chinese
Sagebooks Building Reader (Orange), Simplified Chinese
Sagebooks Confident Reader (Pink), Simplified Chinese
Sagebooks Fluent Reader (Red), Simplified Chinese
Any downsides?
Yes.
- I wish there were page numbers in the version that we read. However, when I provided feedback to Sagebooks, they said “We had initially wanted to keep things simple for the child. But after receiving many requests from teachers and parents, we have since added page numbers to the later editions.”
- I prefer realistic illustrations over cartoons, especially for young children. The Sagebooks illustrations are strange!
- Lack of a storyline. The stories may be boring for older children.
- The set is very expensive.
How does Sagebooks compare to other beginner readers?
The other popular readers that I recommend to parents include:
老大 and I have enjoyed reading each of these books, but I think these are better for reading practice after Sagebooks. Greenfield doesn’t do as well with spaced repetition, and 四五快读 has too many Chinese characters on a page for new learners. Also, 四五快读 does not have audio.
How much does Sagebooks cost?
The retail price of Basic Chinese 500 (Full set) is HK$ 1900 at Sagebooks HK and the conversion rates vary by region. You can buy the books at the following locations:
In summary, I highly recommend Sagebooks Basic 500.
Still undecided? Check out these helpful Chinese homeschooling blogs Mandarin Mama and GuavaRama for their detailed reviews on how their children used Sagebooks to learn 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!
To shop low book prices on TaoBao, here is the How-To Guide for using TaobaoRing.
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
- How To Get Your Child To Speak the Minority Language
- Raising Multilingual Children as a Non-Fluent Parent
- 10 Ways to Get Your Child to Read Throughout the Day
- 6 Fun Ways to Assess Reading Comprehension With Kids!
Bilingual English and Chinese Facebook Parent Group
As always, please leave a comment with any questions, and I’ll try my best to answer them! Or better yet, ask other parents in our Facebook group! Montessori-inspired Kids Learning Chinese and English is a community of parents worldwide who are excited to share bilingual book recommendations, Montessori tips, and learning materials!
Happy reading, friends!
Thank you so much for this review! REALLY helpful. The Sagebooks website doesn’t seem to have a place to enter the Promo Codes – do you know anything about this? I have reached out to Sagebooks directly, but not received a response from them yet. Any tips are greatly appreciated – thanks again!
Hi Becky!! I’m glad you found the review helpful, thank you for reading! Sorry for the confusion – Sagebooks has 2 different websites – one where you can use the code (click on the first “CLICK HERE” link at the end of the post). The code doesn’t work on their regular website. I just edited my post so that hopefully it is more clear!! Please let me know if I can help in any other way! <3
Awesome, I got it to work. Thank you!!
Thank you for posting the review and the promo code for a discount. May I ask what is Sage Formula – TC? Is this the treasure chest? How does it differ from or supplement the Basic Chinese 500 set? Many thanks again!
Hi Janine! TC = traditional Chinese. I think it’s the treasure box set since that’s the only other option on the sale website. I don’t have it since they don’t have ones for simplified Chinese, but Mandarin Mama & GuavaRama have good reviews on the treasure box set. Hope that helps!
Hi Betty, I don’t see the link to the link we can use to input the promo code. Did you take it off this post? Thank you!
Hi Vivian! Yes, I removed the code from the post as Sagebooks decided to end the sale early. Sorry for any inconvenience 🙁
Did you end up purchasing the treasure boxes or skipping them since they are in TC? I am currently debating what to do.
At that time, there was an online version of the SC treasure boxes. I only bought the first set. However, we used it only once since I try to minimize screen-time. So I wrote a lot of my own stories to give her reading practice for the early sets. Sometimes it would just be a few lines on our easel for practice with certain words repeated. I heard that they might be coming out with SC treasure boxes soon though.
Wow this is so helpful! thanks for posting such a detailed review and reflection on Sagebooks. I’ve heard many parents talk about Sagebooks on the bilingual FaceBook group but it’s confusing just hearing people talk about it and not having many visuals. Their website isn’t much better. When I’m going to dish out that much money to buy something, I want to know what’s inside. All that to say thank you for taking time posting this!
Hi Sunny! Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment! I really appreciate it! I also have found it difficult to shop for most Chinese books since online stores generally show tiny photos for the cover and no photos of the inside! So glad to hear that my photos were helpful, I’ll try to keep sharing more reviews! 🙂
Hi Betty, thank you so much for the review. Your articles really help me a lot, since I am raising a multilingual daughter and I am not fluent in Chinese at all. Just a quick question on sage book, if it says traditional Chinese, does that means cantonese? cause I am currently looking for a book that can taught my daughter Cantonese. Thank you again!
Hi! Thank you for the note! Cantonese is a spoken dialect, and people who speak Cantonese usually read traditional Chinese text. However, the audio that comes with Sagebooks is Mandarin Chinese only. If you are looking for a reading series with Cantonese audio, you may want to consider the Greenfield I Can Read Series https://chalkacademy.com/chinese-books-review-greenfield-can-read-series/.