When your kids are little, storytime is one of the easiest ways to bond with them. Those quiet moments bundled in a blanket, turning pages together, are often where language and connection begin. And you can never have enough books that actually reflect your family in their stories. That’s why I’m featuring Curious Little Bao in this article.
If you’re looking for bilingual books that go beyond ABCs and animals, Curious Little Bao is such a beautiful addition to your shelf or baby shower gift basket. These books make it easier to bring language into everyday moments while building cultural pride.
Lunar New Year Giveaway
Enter to win a $75bundle featuring 3 Curious Little Bao bilingual board books, a Zodiac bath book, and a feelings tote bag.
1. Follow Mama & Baby Learn Mandarin
2. Join Chinese Bilingual Parenting
3. Comment on the giveaway post
A winner will be selected from the Facebook Group on 2/23/2026.
About Curious Little Bao Bilingual Books
Curious Little Bao is a children’s book series created by author Helen Wu, born from her own experiences raising a bilingual toddler and the lack of books that both truly reflect Asian kiddos and support dual-language learning. The series features a charming little boy named Bao navigating everyday moments. From sharing and trying new things to expressing feelings and helping around the house, Bao makes learning Mandarin fun!
The Curious Little Bao board books are thoughtfully designed for toddlers and young children, with simple vocabulary, repetitive sentence patterns, and cute, relatable illustrations. With English, Chinese characters, and Pinyin included, they make it easy for non-native speaking parents to read along and support their child’s language learning.
Color Reveal Bath Book – Zodiac Animals
The Curious Little Bao Zodiac bath book turns bath time into a learning experience. Just add water and watch the colors magically appear. Thoughtfully designed for bilingual families, this waterproof book includes Simplified and Traditional Chinese, along with Pinyin, Zhuyin, Jyutping, and English.
Big Feelings Tote
The Curious Little Bao feelings tote is a practical way for kids (and parents) to learn emotion words in Chinese, and a gentle everyday reminder to name and talk through big feelings together. It’s perfect as a gift bag for Curious Little Bao board books, and easy to reuse for toys, library trips, or snacks on the go.
Message from Helen Wu, creator of Curious Little Bao
I worked as a Healthcare consultant before becoming a mom. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d become a self-published author. But this dream began after I became a mom. As an immigrant child, being bilingual was a necessity, to both assimilate into the new environment and to communicate with (translate for) my parents. But as I grew older, I learned to appreciate this skill as a gift. A gift that gave me deep appreciation for different cultures and people. A gift I wanted to pass to my kids once I became a mom myself.
Since I set out to raise my kids bilingual, it didn’t take long for me to realize there weren’t many toddler bilingual books available in the market. Especially ones that teach toddlers basic social skills, manners, and behaviors. I often found myself translating English books into Chinese as I was reading to my toddler. It’s something I know not all parents can do without assistance. So I wanted to leverage my gift to help other families.
In addition to the general lack of bilingual books, within what is available, the main character was most often a girl or an animal. Even the bilingual books I bought from overseas were filled with non-Asian boy characters or animals because they’re just translated versions of English bestsellers. Being a boy mom, I was having a difficult time finding books for my boys to identify with.
I wanted to create books to help bridge this gap. Books that include illustrations that Asian toddlers can identify with. Books with translations and romanization that enable all parents to read to their children in Chinese, and messages that provide simple, repeatable phrases, which help children commit them to memory.
That’s how Curious Little Bao was born. It grew from one book to three, to six, over the course of three years. I also expanded to include interactive books that focused on the culture aspect: teaching the 12 zodiac animals while learning to count, and teaching Chinese holidays while learning about months.
My vision is to continue expanding on this collection, with Cantonese versions of the board books coming soon. In the future, I envision more titles focusing on other aspects of Chinese culture and on picture books that reflect unique Asian values. I hope my books can become an empowering resource for other parents on their journey to share this bilingual gift with their little ones.
IG: @curious.little.bao
Buy her books at: Curious Little Bao – A Bilingual Children’s Book Collection
