Chinese Book Recommendation: 幼儿学句型 Learn Sentences

Book Title: 幼儿学句型 Learn Sentences

About the Book

Language: Simplified Chinese, pinyin

As the title suggests, this series of books are targeted for young children between the ages of 2 and 6, to learn about Chinese sentence structure.

There are 3 sets in the entire series, with 10 books in each set. The books are very short. Only 8 pages long, and focuses on one sentence structure for the entire book. The books are not stories, insead, they are descriptive. See the snapshots below for an insight into each set.

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For example, in Series 1, Book 8 食物, each page introduces a new Chinese food label. The Chinese sentence structure of ”我喜欢” is repeated throughout the book. For the last two pages, there is one additional related sentence structure, and in this book, it is “我也喜欢“. Check out the video below where I am reading that book with Er Bao (who is 4.5 years old).

My personal experience with this series is that it was effortless for my children to pick up the sentence structure. Xiao Bao (who is 3 years old) will repeat the sentences correctly! She can’t read the Chinese words yet, but just by listening to me read it to her, she is able to retain the simple sentences for most of the books.

At the end of each series, there is a revision book, which is the 10th book. In this particular book, all the sentences are written without pinyin, only in Simplified Chinese, and comprise of Chinese words that were introduced in the previous 9 books. See the picture below for an example of what the revision book looks like.

You don’t have to read the books in order, but it would make sense to read the first 9, before your child can tackle the final revision book so you can gauge how much they have learned.

For a comprehensive list of all the books in this series, please scroll down to the bottom of this post where I have listed all the book titles.

What I like about the book

The entire series is very well structured. It delivers on what it promises, which is to expose young children to proper Chinese sentences structure.

On top of teaching Chinese sentence structure, the books also cover the usual preschool themes, such as animals, sea creatures, nature, stationery, places etc. Thus, in each book, your child will be learning 8 new Chinese vocabulary. That’s 72 new Chinese vocabulary in each set!

Personally, my three children enjoy reading this set of Chinese books and will gladly pick them out to read during their daily Chinese reading time.

The quality of the books are excellent. This is so important for Chinese books targeted at young readers! We have had other Chinese readers torn to bits which is a real shame. These books are thankfully printed on thick cardboard, and despite being at the mercy of three young children and repeated usage throughout the almost 5 years we had them, they are in almost mint condition!

In addition, I love that the publishers planned a revision book for each set, so that teachers/mummy homeschoolers can assess their child’s Chinese vocabulary at the end of each set.

What I dislike about the book

In a few of the books, the drawings are very faint, and not very visible.

For one of the books, the sentences were about introducing the concept of opposites. While there were the usual fast/slow, tall/short, the last page introduced pretty/ugly with a picture of a pretty lady. “她长得美，还是丑？她长得美” Perhaps a picture of a pretty/ugly drawing to illustrate the concept would be more sensitive.

Other than that, I can’t really find any other faults with this set of Chinese introductory readers.

The million dollar question... Will my child learn to read Chinese with it?

Yes. It will teach your Chinese to read in basic Chinese sentences, and also expose them to fundamental Chinese vocabulary.

As you can see from the video, my 4.5 year old has been reading this series on and off for the past 6 months, and she is reading about 80% of the book. My 3 year old is currently able to repeat the same sentence structure in the books, and I honestly believe in another 6 months, she will be reading like her older sister.

Rating

Therefore, I am giving the set of Chinese introductory readers a 5 star rating.

I highly recommend this set of Chinese books for younger preschool readers aged 2 to 5.

As an introductory set to Chinese sentence structure and basic Chinese vocabulary, it is a fantastic and cost effective set for young Chinese readers. The illustrations are cute and appealing to young children. The sentences are simple and repetitive.

While this publisher is not as popular as Sage Book Basic Chinese Readers 基础汉字500（read the review here), and Four Five Quick Readers 四五快读, their books are of a good print quality, and very affordable!

That said, we don’t have their other set of readers, and I can’t wait to get my hands on their new reader series to try it out! Come back soon, I will keep you posted when I have tried their other set of Chinese readers out!

Where to purchase

This set of Chinese books are available to purchase individually or as a set in local bookstores in Singapore or Malaysia such as Popular, Times or MPH which is where I got my set from. (Thank you my dear sisters!)

It is also available to purchase individually or as a set online at the official Odonata website or Owlissimo website.

Each set is priced at MYR50 each. At the time of writing, they are having a sale and each set is priced at MYR44. (Be prepared to pay about the same amount in shipping cost.)

Please share with me any other Chinese readers that you have found useful.

Happy Reading! Happy Teaching!

Book Titles

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

家庭成员
脸部器官
身体
动作
常见动物
文具
自然界
食物
穿戴物品
复习本

植物
野生动物
花
会飞的东西
颜色
水果
动物的叫声
数字
形容词 1
复习本

地方
家庭用具
日常用品
水里的动物
爱好
厨房用具
喝的东西
一般活动
形容词 2
复习本