How to Catch a Dragon

December 16, 2019
In unevenly metered rhyme, the team behind the How to Catch series presents their latest installment, in which a Chinese boy attempts to catch a dragon in his village for Chinese New Year with the help of his multicultural friends. Certain English words presented in red, gold, and white are translated into correspondingly colored simplified Chinese characters within the illustrations (“grandma” appears translated in a framed wall hanging, for example). Bafflingly, however, pronunciations don’t appear until the very end, where the entire picture book text is provided in English, pinyin, and simplified Chinese. Digital illustrations, while vibrant, are just as muddled; the setting seems to be an ancient, pre-technological Chinese village, though the boy and his friends all sport modern attire. Chinese dishes, such as sticky rice, are drawn like their Western counterparts and retain none of their cultural nuance. A fun concept with a less-than-stellar execution. Ages 4–10.