Summertime Rainbow: A Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual book of colors
Three pudgy gouache rabbits explore the colorful marvels of spring in  this bilingual book with words in English and Mandarin Chinese  characters. Loosely outlined in black, the rabbits have a simple  elegance that echoes the mood of quiet observation. The rabbits see  “flowers like yellow stars,” mistake a purple butterfly for a flower,  and spot a rainbow: “Ah! A spray of blossoms in the sky.” Endnotes  provide pinyin pronunciations for the story and an explanation of  Chinese tonal marks. Available simultaneously: A Nest in Springtime: A  Bilingual Book of Numbers. Ages 1–4. Agent: Deborah Warren, East-West  Literary Agency. (Apr.)