A mother amuses her young son at the beach by drawing in the sand Chinese characters, many of which resemble the objects they stand for.

At the beach is a Multicultural and international book tells about Chinese culture like Chinese characters and how them look like and how to write. This book introduces Chinese characters in an easy and acceptable way that associate them to real life, like the character “大” looks like a people stretching out his legs and arms.
The arts in this book are water-colored and show the Chinese characters in an vivid way.
Usage: For intermediate students. I will introduce some Chinese characters to students. And students can be able to know what Chinese characters look like and know the formation and meaning of them. ( )

Genre: Informational & Multicultural book
Media: Watercolor
Summary: Xiaoming goes to beach with his mom. His mother helps hime to remember some Chinese characters with the pictures.
This book introduces the beauty and the insight meaning of Chinese characters.
Usage: This is a great picture book for young Chinese beginner. We have used this book in Chinese club where basic Chinese characters were introduced to students. This book is a good one to arise interests of students to learn Chinese. After reading this book, students can have a basic understanding of Chinese. ( )

Summary:
This picture book tells a story of a mother and her young son play at the beach and drawing Chinese characters in the sand. The son was amused because those Chinese characters resemble the objects they stand for.
Genre: Contemporary realistic fiction
Use in teaching: 1. Read the book to the class
2. Teach students to write those characters and draw the objects they stand for
Media: collage ( )

I enjoyed this book mainly for the text. The author included words from the Mandarin Chinese language that children can learn and their definitions or translations into the English language. An example of this can be where the author includes the Mandarin character and then the sentence "The character for woman is much easier to remember." As a story, it was no where near interesting. It lacked a focus. The central message of the book is Xiao Ming, a young Chinese girl learning how to write in Chinese. She goes to the beach and gets frustrated but her mother teachers her about dedication. ( )