Happy New Year, Chinese-style!

In February I was invited to sign copies of Anna Mei, Cartoon Girl at a Chinese New Year Party. This annual event is hosted by the local branch of an organization called Families with Children from China. 

What a wonderful group of parents and children! Most of the kids were girls adopted from China, ranging in age from 18 months up to about fourteen. They seemed excited to see a book cover featuring a character that looked like them--according to some of the parents I talked to, that is a rare experience. Many of the girls wore traditional Chinese clothing. They looked just beautiful in their brightly colored and embroidered silk outfits.

After sharing a potluck dinner, we were treated to live music from a young Chinese opera singer. The girls enjoyed making crafts and playing with the live rabbits who were honored guests, since this is the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar. Then they joined together to don a dragon costume and parade around the room with noisemakers. Finally the girls were invited to participate in what the organizers called "faux fireworks." Since we were inside a church hall, I couldn't imagine what this could be, short of all of us gathering around a TV to watch a fireworks DVD. The actual event turned out to be so much more fun than that! First the adults laid out long strips of bubble wrap on the floor. The girls, holding fiber-optic flashlights, lined up on both sides. Then someone turned off the lights, someone else yelled "Go!," and suddenly the hall was filled with the pop and crackle of hundreds of tiny "fireworks." The girls laughed and jumped and waved their flashlights until the very last bubble had burst. It was the cutest thing I ever saw, and that includes the bunnies!

I had a great time and am so delighted to have been invited to the party. Many thanks to Janelle and Jo Marie from the FCC, to all the parents who stopped to chat with me about their cherished daughters, and especially to the girls themselves, whose bright eyes and happy smiles reminded me why I wrote a story about a girl named Anna Mei in the first place.