New book in Chinese for middle schoolers

There are so few books in Chinese that middle schoolers can read and find interesting that I wanted to highlight a new one which came out recently.

The Chinese Biographies series by Cheng and Tsui has just published a biography of basketball star Jeremy Lin. More about it here.

The blurb reads:

“Discover the story of “Linsanity”. Jeremy Lin knew from childhood that he wanted to play professional basketball and broke significant barriers to become the first Chinese-American NBA player. Readers will learn how this contemporary cultural icon overcame the challenges on his path to fame and developed his inspiring strength of character.”

The books in the series use between 300 and 750 characters and come with audio files you can get from the website so students and listen and read along. Many times students can understand a much higher level of spoken Chinese than written Chinese, so hearing the words as they read means they can read texts that are at a higher level than they could easily read on their own.

The blurb about the series:

“These engaging biographies of Chinese cultural icons were specifically designed for students who have mastered 350-700 characters. Pinyin annotation facilitates the reading process, making Chinese character texts accessible at the earliest stages of learning. Touching on contemporary cultural issues, these biographies and their related online activities encourage students to think, speak and write in Chinese as they learn about Jeremy Lin, Yao Ming, and others. Perfect for classroom instruction or independent reading.”