The emperor challenges all of the animals to race in order to have a year named after them. This story explains how the animals were chosen for the Chinese zodiac and why cats hate rats.

This is one of my favorite folktales. I love the variety of personalities of the animals and their different approaches to the challenge of getting across the lake and the competitive aspect of it being a race. Throughout all the story I always feel bad for the cat. But this version was particularly upsetting to me because the author added the back story that the rat and cat were best friends. What a betrayal!

This is a great book to enhance Chinese culture knowledge. It also teaches children about kindness and being compassionate when others are in trouble even if it doesn't benefit you.

I'm absolutely in love with "The Race for the Chinese Zodiac" because it taught me new concepts in a clever, engaging way. The story teaches readers about the order of the animals in the Chinese zodiac and their specific traits. It's set up as a race, and each rank an animal places in is their place in the zodiac rotation. I liked that the language and writing had similar patterns and overall structure, going from animal to animal and presenting the basics of their journey. "Courageous Tiger leaped into the river, striking out with his powerful paws. Peaceful Rabbit jumped onto a log, holding on with all her might." Each page has one or two animals, and they all have a character trait in front of their name (peaceful, courageous, etc).Each animal represents a feature and those born in that accompanying year possess those traits. Because of this structure, readers easily catch the gist of what's going on. Their journey reflects on their nature, and the language and interesting theme allows for the story to flow well. Below each page/paragraph is a Chinese symbol representing that animal, which I found to be a very positive addition to the overall value of the book. The illustrations are fun and modern yet still maintain a classic Chinese art vibe, which I appreciated. The entire book is extremely visually appealing. At the end, the book lists each Chinese zodiac year with the specific years associated with them and the traits each one represents. Since they're in order of who "won" the "race," I found it to be a good informational followup to further explain the purpose of the story. ( )

About how the Chinese Zodiac signs came to be. ( )

Charming story imagining the origin of the Chinese zodiac. Stunning illustrations by Sally Rippin. ( )