How Mouse gave his name to the first year

The legends of how the Chinese years were given the names of animals have fascinated children for generation after generation in the East, and now gradually in the West.

This series of colourful picture books about the stories of how each animal year was named will lead young readers into a beautifully attractive Eastern fairyland illustrated with skilful traditional paintings in the Chinese tradition, designed specifically for children.

In the first book, How Mouse Gave His Name to the First Year, the major characters are a little mouse and his best friend, a cat.

They both want to enter a race to be held by the Emperor Jade to choose the top twelve animals who will each have a year in the Chinese twelve-year cycle named after them.

The mouse, though tiny, has the biggest ambition to be the first animal.

How can such a small animal achieve so big a dream against competitors like the water buffalo, the tiger and the dragon?

Why is there not a year called Cat? Why have the mouse and the cat become enemies ever since the famous race?

The mouse has used many ways of course. Is the mouse clever or sinister? We shall leave our young readers to find it out.