When I first found out that Bitty Bao were releasing Cantonese versions their first three books, I set a phone reminder for the date their preorder form went live; I was so excited. As they are based in the US, I immediately contacted my good friend who lives there and she said she would happily ship them over to me so I ordered the books to her address. Cue the next day where Bitty Bao got in touch with me to let me know they of course could arrange shipping to the UK. In the typical style of my type A, overachieving family, I had to solve the logistics of shipping immediately which caused a bigger delay in the long run where I should have just waited 24 hours. Though it did mean I had a very pleasant exchange with Lacey who sorted out my order efficiently.
Needless to say, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of these books. Whilst the vast majority of AJ’s books are now in Cantonese (thanks to a lot of late nights with me and Pleco), this is the first time that he has owned Chinese books, created by Chinese authors, with Chinese children in mind!
Books Overview
There are three books in Bitty Bao’s first set of Cantonese books:
- Counting with Dim Sum – Learn to count in Cantonese with dim sum that are full of personality.
- The Colours of Snow Ice – Build a bowl of snow ice piled high with toppings and learn the names of colours along the way.
- Everyday Heroes – Meet some food that are everyday heroes, those with jobs that are the foundation to society.
Pros
- Bold, colourful illustrations are delightful to look at plus pages include real photos of the food involved, which has been shown to be beneficial for babies’ development.
- The books contain traditional Chinese, jyutping, and English so accessible to all readers and levels. As a multilingual family, we so appreciate this.
- Books contain helpful grammar notes for parents and older children e.g. explaining that we use the word loeng for counting two objects but the number two is yi
- The content is pitched just at the right level. Plus, there are little touches like the number line in the Counting with Dim Sum book or the sentence starters in the Everyday Heroes book that helps make the book more accessible to toddlers.
- The books come with stretch and challenge activities such as writing a thank you letter to an everyday hero and making your own snow ice.
- The board books are high quality (AJ has already thrown and chewed his copies with glee).
- By the buying the books, you are supporting a small business owned by women of colour (and not making Bezos even richer!)
- Audio readings are available by following the QR codes on the back of each book, which can help your babies access the text independent of you or can help you with your pronunciation
Cons
- Shipping is costly from the USA (though I’ve been informed that Di Ziremi stocks all the Bitty Bao books!)
- Their Cantonese stock is limited and over 50% sold at the time of writing so you have to move fast if you want your own set!
- A very small non-issue but the books’ titles are not written in jyutping like the rest of the book.
Alternative
If shipping costs are too high for you, there are UK stockists for Bitty Bao’s mandarin books (which contain simplified characters and pinyin). As there is not much text on each page, it’s not unfeasible to make your own Cantonese text to stick over though this will dampen the aesthetics of the colourful pages. If you go this route, you will have the added bonus of more content as there are more than three books available in the mandarin series. And if you are making your own Cantonese version, please please please share your translation with me!
I’m delighted I was able to secure a copy of these books and desperately hope Bitty Bao releases Cantonese versions of all their books. It’s been so refreshing to read books to AJ that have been written for his age group with Cantonese and Chinese culture in mind rather than having a translation of a book made for English-speaking audiences. In the words of Bitty Bao’s iconic tote, “There’s no such thing as too many Cantonese books.”
Mama Bear Cantonese 