A festive account of one family’s Chinese New Year celebration. A little girl describes the preparations—everything from cleaning and shopping to food preparation and gifts—leading up to a magical Lunar New Year. In one dreamy sequence, the girl imagines herself in Ancient China, riding on a dragon, and watching the celebration unfold. Gr. 3-5. A little girl tells the story of her family's Chinese New Year celebration. Although the cover illustration shows the girl riding a dragon and the first page promises magic, the majority of this book deals with the holiday as a family event --from cleaning and shopping to food preparation and gifts. Street parades and fireworks are only incidental; this story takes place in a middle-class kitchen, living room, and dining room. The girl cleans the house in her jeans, but she wears traditional clothing (with red sneakers) for the family party. The magical happening is a tiny, dreamy moment when the girl feels she's back in ancient China, watching the celebration from a dragon's back. The pictures show a world in which tradition intersects a nontraditional world: the New Year's fireworks explode against an urban skyscape. Mary Harris Veeder Rachel Sing is the author of Chinese New Year's Dragon, a Simon & Schuster book.