A picture book · ages 4 to 8
Twelve Across the River
The Great Race of the Chinese Zodiac
Rat is the smallest animal on the riverbank. He can’t swim. He can’t even see over the grass. But Rat has a plan.
Read-along audio
Listen
Open the book and press play. Turn the page when you hear the chime. 打开书，听到“叮”的一声就翻页。
The story in Mandarin 中文朗读
The voices are synthesised.
Free to print
The activity pack
Twelve pages to go with the book, for US Letter paper; they print on A4 as well.
- The twelve animals to color and cut out
- The finishing order to cut and paste
- Your birth-year animal
- The animals to write in Chinese
- A maze and a word search
- Questions to talk about
Inside the book
A comedy for reading aloud
This is the Great Race, the best-known story of the Chinese zodiac: why the years come in this order, why there is no Year of the Cat, and why cats have chased rats ever since. At the back, a table of the day each Chinese year began, 1984 to 2031, so that January and February birthdays come out right.
Paperback and Kindle
Three editions
In the bilingual editions each page is shorter than in the English edition, so both languages sit beside the picture, with pinyin above every character.
