Why roosters crow at sunrise and chase after worms

Ed Young with Hilary Beckett

The Rooster's Horns: 

A Chinese puppet play to make and perform

Collins, 1978

This charming fable stars Dragon, Worm, and Rooster. In the beginning, Dragon admires Rooster's golden horns and wishes to have ones like them. Worm intercedes as the conniving advisor to Dragon, suggesting that Dragon ask to "borrow" them. Rooster is the affable, trusting soul. Through flattery and false promises, Rooster is persuaded lend his horns for a day. But come sunrise, when Dragon is due to return the horns, and every sunrise thereafter, Rooster cries in vain. As for the sneaky worm, he has little chance what Rooster spots him.

  Ed Young's lyrical, fan-shaped illustrations accompany the story, which is followed by instructions and patterns for creating a shadow puppet play. It seems like a fine project for a grade school class or a rainy day. 

DIY

Lance Kramer (author)
Steven Weinberg (illustrator)
Great Ancient China Projects You Can Build Yourself
Nomad, 2008

If you have crafty, hands-on kids in your life, Great Ancient China Projects combines a little bit of history, lore, and culture with a variety of scientific and artistic things to do. The book reminds me of a workbook, and probably could be useful for lesson planning, home schooling, and the like. The layout is a bit too cluttered for my taste (more is not necessarily more), with somewhat perfunctory illustrations (sometimes odd, as when ink drawings of bronze vessels accompanies a chapter on silk and jade), and the occasional inexplicable looks-like-a-character-but-isn't (fengshui is 風水). But, if you don't mind picking and choosing for yourself, it could be a good resource for making paper, a mini terracotta army, a compass, noodles, and more. The book's aim is to get you out of the book and into your project, after all.

Holiday stories and fun

Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz, & The Children's Museum, Boston (authors)

Meilo So (illustrator)

Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: 

A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes

This kind of anthology is generally not my favorite type of book, but if you are looking for a single book about Chinese holidays, their associated folk tales, and traditions, this one is a good one. Too often, anthologies overwhelm and flatten their subject. Fortunately, rather than going with an encyclopedic approach, these authors have exercised care in their selection of topics and related stories, activities, and recipes.  

  The book is divided into four chapters according to four major holidays (counting New Year and the Lantern Festival as one). Folk tales include less common ones. I enjoyed the one of Dongfang Shuo whose cleverness saved Chang'an and makes sense of new year's show of firecrackers, fireworks, and lanterns. The tale of Jie Zitui, which involves an episode of self-sacrificing cuisine, is not for the squeamish and reminds us of how bracing folk tales really are. While I didn't try out the crafts and recipes, I can imagine that parents and teachers, as well as children, will enjoy them. The list of resources is excellent, and the guide to pronunciation is just about the best I have encountered.