The Day the Dragon Danced
Sugar and her Grandma are going to the Chinese New Year's Day parade, but Grandma is skeptical about New Year's in February and scary dragons.
Sugar has learned all about what to expect from her teacher Miss Peng, though, and is more than ready to try dragon beard's candy and watch her daddy dance in the New Year's dragon.
Finally, after all the other floats drive by, the huge red and gold dragon pokes his head around the corner and dances down the street. Sugar tries to remember which shoes are her daddy's, and realizes the dragon isn't dancing so well...
Sugar's quick thinking saves the day and the dragon's dance, and everyone in the community is ready to celebrate the new lunar year. As the dragon dancers emerge from beneath the dragon, Sugar recognizes her neighbors, including shopkeeper Mr. Chu, barber Mr. Johnson, teacher Mr. Gonzalez, and her own African-American daddy.
Kay Haugaard's exuberant storytelling and Carolyn Reed Barritt's equally colorful and lively paintings perfectly embody truly multicultural celebration of our American melting pot.
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Kay Haugaard studied Art History at the University of Oregon, then moved to Pasadena, California with her husband. There, she acquired her Master's degree in Comparative Literature at Occidental College while raising her three sons who are now grown. Kay still lives in Pasadena where, over the years, she has written three other books: Myeko's Gift, China Boy, and No Place. The Day the Dragon Danced was inspired by a Chinese New Year parade that she attended in Monterey Park, California.
Carolyn Reed Barritt received an art degree from Macalester College and worked for 15 years as a graphic designer and art director in Michigan and Washington State before returning to her roots in painting and fine art. Carolyn painted the illustrations for The Day the Dragon Danced while living with her husband as the caretakers and sole winter inhabitants of a small island at the edge of the North Atlantic.
