Mei Li’s Chinese New Year

Thomas Handforth’s Mei Li won the Caldecott Medal in 1939. One of the earliest American picture books to feature an Asian protagonist, it is considered a milestone for diversity in children’s literature. This is Handforth’s original artwork for the book’s cover.



In the story, Mei Li is a little girl who lives outside Beijing with her family. Frustrated by the expectation that girls stay home, she defies norms by joining her brother for adventures at the New Year’s fair. In the end she accepts the safety and comfort of home life over the excitements of the outside world, but only temporarily: “It will do for a while, anyway,” she says.