Gai See: What You Can See in Chinatown - Hardcover

Thong, Roseanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810993376 ISBN 13: 9780810993372

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2007

Synopsis

Take a charming tour of Chinatown!

What in the world
could you possibly see
at an old gai see,
just you and me
on a warm and easy,
slightly breezy
springtime Saturday morning?

In Cantonese, gai see means “street market,” the lively place where vendors sell all their goods from open-air stalls, pushcarts, and stores. Join a curious little boy as he shops at the market with his family in every season and discovers many special treasures. From noodles in the spring to dragon fruit in the summer, from chocolate coins in the fall to firecrackers for Chinese New Year in the winter, you never know what you might find during a magical stroll through Chinatown.

About this title

About the Author:

Roseanne Thong is the award-winning author of books about the Asian experience. Two of them have earned a Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Children’s Book Center Best of the Year Award. She divides her time between Hong Kong and Southern California, where she always shops in Chinese markets.

From Booklist:

Children are invited to visit a gai see, or street market, to observe the activities of a typical Chinatown during each season. Told in rhyme, the tour focuses on food but notes a few other traditions, including a New Year's celebration. The buoyant invitational refrain features delightful internal rhyme, but the verses that follow do not always fit comfortably within the set rhyme pattern. Clear, bright illustrations portray the bustle and variety of the marketplace during each season, from the blossoms of springtime to the lion dance of the New Year. An appended glossary defines such words as cheong-fun and ramen, which is more Japanese than Chinese. The enticing picture-book tour will elicit recognition from Chinese American families and give others a chance to visit a gai see vicariously. Perkins, Linda

About this edition

• Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0810993376
• ISBN 13: 9780810993372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Choi Yangsook