Tag: series: Ling & Ting

Review: Share a Birthday

“Ling goes into a bookstore. She looks at all the books. She sees a book that she wants to read. / ‘I will buy this book for Ting,’ Ling says. ‘Maybe she will share it with me.’ ” page 12

Ling & Ting: Share a Birthday by Grace Lin.
Little, Brown, and Co., Hachette Book Group, New York, 2013.
Early chapter book, 48 pages.
Lexile:  320L  .
AR Level:  2.0 (worth 0.5 points)  .
NOTE: This is part of the Ling and Ting series.

Six birthday short stories from the life of Chinese-American twins Ling and Ting.

Ling & Ting 2 Share a Birthday cover resized
Ling & Ting Share a Birthday by Grace Lin.

My children were so enamored with the first book in the Ling and Ting series, and read it so many times, that I went ahead and purchased the rest of the books.  There isn’t really a clear indicator of order in this series, and I don’t think that the order really matters to most readers, but I like to know.

So extrapolating from the publication date the series is:

  1. Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
  2. Ling and Ting: Share a Birthday
  3. Ling and Ting: Twice as Silly
  4. Ling and Ting: Together in All Weather

Again, you could easily read these out of order though, as there is no numbering to the series.  Some books do make reference to others, but there definitely isn’t a strict chronology to this particular series, which is great for young readers who tend to pick things up randomly, or teachers who would like to break students up into groups that read different-but-similar materials.

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Review: Not Exactly the Same!

“Ling and Ting are twins. They are not exactly the same. Now when people see them, they know it too.” page 8

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin.
Little, Brown, and Co., Hachette Book Group, New York, 2010.
Early chapter book, 48 pages.
Lexile:  390L  .
AR Level:  1.8 (worth 0.5 points)  .

Six short stories from the life of Chinese-American twins Ling and Ting.

Ling Ting Not Exactly the Same cover resized

It’s extremely difficult to find suitable early chapter books at all, let alone diverse and culturally appropriate ones.  While the availability of novels and picture books are slowly improving, these essential early reader and early chapter book categories remain ridiculously white, able-bodied, etc.

I’ve written about a few we tried back when my last reader was transitioning, but got away from this series of reviews as he turned toward more complex books.  Now that my next child is ready to make this transition, I’m going to try a few new-to-us series (and hopefully complete reviews for the ones we bought last time around).

Continue reading “Review: Not Exactly the Same!”