MoonRattles Press Releases

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August 21, 2007.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MoonRattles Announces Release of Illustrated Children’s Book Grandfather’s Ghosts: A Chinese Tale

Bell Canyon, CA—MoonRattles, LLC today announced a new illustrated children’s book, Grandfather’s Ghosts: A Chinese Tale, written by Heatherly Bucher and illustrated by Zi Hua Yang. The book is the third printed under the MoonRattles imprint and provides a warm look at a little known Chinese holiday, Hungry Ghost Festival.

Author Heatherly Bucher successfully recasts Hungry Ghost Festival, a rather difficult but important Eastern holiday into a fun adventure of a grandfather and his two little grandchildren. The celebratory aspects of the holiday, including riverside gatherings, music, bright river lanterns and people sharing food and remembering their families, speak to the importance of relationships and the value of all souls.

The book’s illustrator Zi Hua Yang uses modern digital art methods to portray a China of an older time, complete with colorful scrolls, robed Buddhist monks and stone and mud town buildings. Her depiction of the two grandchildren is delightful, making them playful, active and almost anime-like. The book is hard bound in black cloth with foil stamping and embossed laminates that visually attract readers of all ages.

Grandfather’s Ghosts: A Chinese Tale will be available in late August 2007 directly from MoonRattles, Baker & Taylor for distribution, and Amazon. The book is also featured in MoonRattle’s currently shipping Seventh Lunar Month Heritage Holiday Kit. A full media kit is available on the company website.

"My hope is that we give our children the basis for fostering community concepts, understanding and communication," says Heatherly Bucher, co-founder at MoonRattles. "Grandfather’s Ghosts was my own personal challenge and contribution to our company mission to guide children through concepts of self, cultural diversity and community. I wanted to share this celebration time with a young audience. My retelling hopefully paints a picture of what the children of ancient China might have seen and experienced during this festival."

About MoonRattles, LLC
MoonRattles, LLC provides children, parents and educators with opportunities to remove barriers and learn about their own heritage as well as other cultures, thereby ushering intelligent, confident and compassionate children into adulthood. Through heritage holiday kits and quality children’s books and more, families explore the world while also creating meaningful family traditions. For founders Heatherly Bucher and Tom Allen, MoonRattles is a labor of love and passion for furthering children's understanding of themselves and each other. For more information, call 800-961-6073 or visit http://www.moonrattles.com.
 

August 21, 2007.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MoonRattles Announces New Edition of Illustrated Children’s Book Rabbit Mooncakes

"A warm, authentic Chinese family story.”
From School Library Journal for 1994 Little, Brown edition

Bell Canyon, CA—MoonRattles, LLC today announced the new edition of author/illustrator Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer’s Rabbit Mooncakes, a children’s book that playfully explores the importance of family in the context of a Chinese American celebration of Mid Autumn, or Harvest Moon, Festival.

This edition brings back into print the book originally published in 1994 by Little, Brown and Company. The MoonRattles edition includes additional artwork, a new full color cover and a special family recipe for “rabbit” mooncakes from the author’s mother. With its themes of diversity and overcoming challenging situations, this book is of interest to all families, teachers and librarians.

Rabbit Mooncakes will be available September 2007 directly from MoonRattles, Baker & Taylor for distribution, and Amazon. The book will also be featured in MoonRattle’s upcoming Mid Autumn Festival Heritage Holiday Kit. A full media kit is available on the MoonRattles website.

Author/illustrator Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer provides readers an authentic look at family traditions in a Chinese American home during Harvest Moon Festival while also considering the oft-encountered childhood fear of performing in front of an audience. When the extended family gathers under the brightest moon of the year to sing poem songs, a young girl finds that in the midst of such warmth and love, mistakes hardly matter at all.

Krakauer’s artwork is fresh, lively and original. Children will identify with the characters and find surprises on almost every page in the details of the family home and celebration activities. A helpful Chinese-English glossary makes exploring the Chinese culture and terms fun for readers.

"My hope is that we give our children the basis for fostering community concepts and appreciating the diverse cultural inputs that make us who we are," says Heatherly Bucher, Co-founder at MoonRattles. "Rabbit Mooncakes is a special book that we are proud to bring back in print. It is an example of our company mission to guide children through concepts of self, cultural diversity and community."

About MoonRattles, LLC
MoonRattles, LLC provides children, parents and educators with opportunities to remove barriers and learn about their own heritage as well as other cultures, thereby ushering intelligent, confident and compassionate children into adulthood. Through heritage holiday kits and quality children’s books and more, families explore the world while also creating meaningful family traditions. For founders Heatherly Bucher and Tom Allen, MoonRattles is a labor of love and passion for furthering children's understanding of themselves and each other. For more information, call 800-961-6073 or visit http://www.moonrattles.com.

About Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer grew up in Queens, New York. Her parents emigrated from China as teenagers and, in raising their children, tried to retain as much of their Chinese culture as possible. Hoong Yee and her younger sister spoke mostly Chinese at home, not learning English until kindergarten.
Hoong Yee now lives in Belle Harbor, New York, with her husband and three children, where she is the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts.
Hoong Yee is a firm believer in the power of the arts to mobilize and transform community.
 

December 13, 2006.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. 

MoonRattles Announces Chinese Heritage Holiday Kits for Families

Bell Canyon, CA—MoonRattles, LLC today announced the availability of a series of Chinese Heritage Holiday Kits to help families celebrate holidays, learn about cultural aspects and build new family traditions. MoonRattles provides quality heritage holiday kits for families, focusing on internationally adoptive families, but available to any families who wish to promote diversity education.

Since 1992, United States families have adopted more than 50,000 Chinese children and Canadian families have brought home than 8500 children from China. The steady continuation of the Chinese international adoption program is creating a new population segment in the United States and Canada with new needs.

As internationally adoptive families welcome their new children, they often desire to help their children retain knowledge or teach them about their birth countries, and they may wish to add to their own family traditions by embracing their children’s heritage. This can be challenging for adoptive parents, given time, resources, and knowledge constraints.

In response to this need, MoonRattles has proudly developed Chinese Heritage Holiday Kits. MoonRattles Chinese Heritage Holiday Kits are targeted at families with children ages 3-9+ years of age. Each kit contains activities and stories to encourage children to explore and learn about their own heritage and the diversity of cultures in the world. Kits include a 52-page activity guide, a parent program guide, an exclusive illustrated children’s hardback storybook printed in full color, hard-to-find activity supplies and unique folk items.

For 2007, MoonRattles offers six holiday kits for Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, Seventh Eve and Ghost Festival, Mid-Autumn and Moon Festival, Double Ninth and Dong Zhi. Kits ship two to three weeks before the start of each holiday and are priced at $42. Kits are available from MoonRattles directly at www.moonrattles.com.

“Our children are growing up in a different world where they need to be not only grounded in who they are and their unique qualities, but also to have an appreciation for the similarities and differences we all have,” says Heatherly Bucher, Title at MoonRattles. “My hope is that we give our children the basis for fostering community concepts, understanding, and communication. The MoonRattles Chinese Heritage Holiday Kits provide families fun celebration activities and also encourage parents to use this forum as another way to guide children through concepts of self, cultural diversity and community.”

MoonRattles will also be providing kits to Families with Children from China non-profit organizations through the Kinship Program where the parent-led local non-profit groups can sell the kits to group members at Chinese New Year parties and other events. The Kinship Program allows the FCC chapters to retain a percentage of the sales as a fundraiser.

About MoonRattles, LLC
MoonRattles, LLC provides children, parents and educators with opportunities to remove barriers and learn about their own heritage as well as other cultures, thereby ushering intelligent, confident and compassionate children into adulthood. Through heritage holiday kits, families may learn about a country or people group’s heritage and culture while also creating meaningful family traditions. For founders Heatherly Bucher and Tom Allen, MoonRattles is a labor of love and passion for furthering children’s understanding of themselves and each other. For more information, call 800-961-6073 or visit http://www.moonrattles.com.