Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Today we opened one of the larger boxes and finally unpacked some books I ordered while in Taiwan.

Here’s a quick look at what we got, from left to right:

1. 字的傳奇

This series is one we’ve already listened to as an audiobook on the 親子天下 app. Little Bao enjoyed its storyline, which involves characters battling demons and villains. Written by the renowned children’s author 林世仁 (who also authored 換換書, the first bridge book Little Bun finished independently), this new series turns Chinese character radicals into an adventure narrative. I was delighted to find the text-to-graphic ratio at about 50/50, making it less text-heavy. Since Little Bao often complains about books with “too much text,” I think he’ll really enjoy this one.

2. 我家系列
I initially bought just one book from this series as a sample, and it was a hit! Unlike most of the fictional stories we read, this series recounts the author’s childhood memories in a reflective, prose-like style reminiscent of adult literature. Little Bun loved the first sample, so I decided to collect the whole series.

3. 小黃兔和絲薄荷
This is a series I’ve been eyeing for a long time and am thrilled to finally have. Though I haven’t read the full story yet, I appreciate how the text is interspersed with illustrations, giving it a graphic novel/comic feel. Each character’s dialogue is printed in a unique color, which I think will be perfect for role-playing as a family with Little Bao and Little Bun.

4. 7歲名偵探 小福爾摩斯
I was drawn to this series because it’s marketed for kindergarten and lower-grade readers. However, after skimming through it, I realized it’s not as beginner-friendly as advertised. The vocabulary includes complex terms like 伐木工人 (lumberjack) and 杉樹 (cedar), which are uncommon and challenging to pronounce for younger readers. Additionally, some pages are quite text-heavy, which might overwhelm early readers. This series turned out to be a bit of a letdown.

5. 屁屁超人
Similar to the 我家系列, we initially sampled just one book from this series. I wasn’t sure if the kids would enjoy it—until we discovered a Taiwanese sibling podcast that read the book aloud in a hilarious way. That sparked lots of laughter, and Little Bun immediately finished the sample book on her own. Seeing their enthusiasm, I decided to collect more from this series.

Looking back, I realize that many of these books were ones we already had some familiarity with—either through samples at home or audio versions we had listened to. This familiarity makes me even more eager for the kids to dive into them now.

While I still use 親子天下 frequently, I’ve started exploring podcasts to search for book titles. Many podcasts offer audiobook-style readings, which help kids become familiar with the stories and characters. This familiarity makes it much easier for them to engage with the books when they eventually read them on their own.