Learn Chinese with Mandarin Picture Books

Mandarin Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and a gateway to learning about China’s rich culture heritage! And it has never been easier to expose your child to Mandarin. The Mandarin picture books featured below are a wonderful way for children to begin to learn Chinese, whether as heritage learners or with no background at all.

Learn Chinese with Mandarin Picture Books

Disclosure: I received complimentary copies of the books below for review purposes; however, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.

Help your child learn Chinese with these engaging Mandarin picture books!

If your child is just starting to learn Chinese, the new picture book First Mandarin Sounds: an Awesome Chinese Word Book is a great place to start! The author is the respected educator behind the popular website Miss Panda Chinese. Her enthusiasm for the language is infectious, and her years of experience teaching Chinese to children is obvious in this new book. First Mandarin Sounds teaches children 37 essential sounds of Mandarin Chinese. All sounds are shown in Chinese characters as well as Pinyin, which utilizes the Roman alphabet, making it easy for non-native speakers to jump right in.

My children loved the adorable illustrations and playing “seek and find” with them. The author has cleverly hidden both the Pinyin and Chinese characters inside each simple illustration. This way children have a fun activity to do on each page, plus it helps them remember the sounds and characters. Great for beginning learners!

Are you looking for a fun way to teach your child Mandarin or just to expose them to other languages? Are you looking for a great story about friendship across cultures? Then you will love Travel, Learn and See Your Friends : Adventures in Mandarin Immersion, a new bilingual book from Edna Ma!

Written in English, Simplified Chinese, and Pinyin, it follows the friendship of two boys that meet in a Chinese language immersion school. I love the fact that one boy is learning Mandarin because it’s his heritage language, while the other (based on a real little boy!) is doing it to learn about a new culture! When one boy finds out he’s moving to another city, can the friends come up with a plan to see each other again?

I love this sweet story of friendship, plus my son (not a Mandarin speaker!) enjoyed looking at the Chinese characters and trying to figure out how to pronounce the Mandarin words (thanks to the Pinyin, which renders Chinese into English characters). Wonderful book to motivate children to learn Chinese.

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