Easy Steps to Chinese for Kids is a series of Chinese textbooks specifically designed for kids from non-Chinese backgrounds. It covers four levels, each made up of Textbooks a and b (each with a CD), Workbooks a and b, a set of color picture flashcards (for students) and a set of word cards (for teachers). This series has four characters in it, namely Ding Yi, Tian Li, Jingjing and Lele, who are primary school students from China and abroad. Beautifully designed illustrations, simple sentences and dialogues and lovely songs among other means are adopted to develop the kids› interest in learning Chinese and help them lay a solid Chinese foundation by mastering such fundamental Chinese knowledge as numbers, basic strokes, families and daily expressions. In each volume, a cultural point is introduced through exquisite illustrations, concise words and interesting color stickers. This is Textbook 4b in the series, which is beautifully illustrated and printed in full color. It has altogether 7 lessons encompassing such topics as weather, clothes, actions/behaviors in progress, school facilities, school subjects and sports, etc. As the last volume of ESC for Kids, it gives an overall review of the pinyin, simple characters and radicals learned before. Besides, three new radicals are taught in each lesson, more character and radical writing, sentence-making and text-composing exercises are provided, and a specific listening exercise is added in each lesson to further improve students› comprehensive Chinese language skills. .
