Lin’s Lucky Red Envelope

Commissioned by Holt Renfrew in support of Project 1907, Lin’s Lucky Red Envelope written by Sennah Yee and illustrated by Elaine Chen is the story of community, generosity, adapting traditions to new place.

It’s time to celebrate the Lunar New Year but Lin is feeling very unlucky. It’s her first Lunar New Year in her new home in Vancouver, BC and she’s missing all of her family back in Beijing. Although her parents are trying to recreate the experience, Lin hangs the decorations all wrong, makes wonky dumplings and rips her cherished stuffed animal’s leg. When Lin sees how much her family enjoys her contributions to the celebration she feel better and extends the celebration to her new neighbour.

Sennah Yee and Elaine Chen have created a lovely story about community. When we have to celebrate our traditions in different ways it can be hard and make us feel sad. Lin’s story shows us the opportunity it creates to develop new traditions and welcome more people into our celebrations. Lin’s generosity in sharing with her neighbour Anne is repaid by Anne helping to sew Lăo Hŭ’s leg back together.

I love the choice to not only include the text of the story in English but also in Chinese characters, including more readers in the sharing of this lovely story.

The art by Elaine Chen is beautiful and bright, full of reds and oranges celebrating the New Year. Readers will feel enveloped in family and community through all the bright faces and the celebration within the illustrations.