How to find suitable reading materials
If you're trying to learn Mandarin Chinese, extensive reading (reading longer texts that are written at a comfortable, relatively easy level for the reader) gives you a chance to practice seeing words in a variety of contexts, to get used to grammar structures as they are typically used, and to improve their reading speed through an enjoyable process.
HOWEVER... it's not always easy for learners to find suitable materials that are both fun to read and at an appropriate level. We aim to help learners find and compare books so that learning is fast and fun — as it should be!
Recommended reader series (more below)
Chinese Breeze is a well-written set of storybooks designed for high school and university students. The series offers language learners at all levels the opportunity to read for pleasure while simultaneously developing reading comprehension skills, building confidence, and increasing motivation.
Features
- four levels (300, 500, 750, and 1100 words)
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audio available as downloadable mp3s
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glossary of new/difficult words
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footnotes with new vocabulary as it's introduced
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exercises for each chapter
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paperback and Kindle versions available
Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.
Features
- three levels (150, 300, 450 characters)
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glossary of new/difficult words
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footnotes with new vocabulary as it's introduced
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paperback and Kindle versions available
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simplified and traditional character versions
Subtitled "Selected, Abridged Chinese Contemporary Short Stories", these reading books each provide 5 or 6 short stories each contemporary Chinese authors, introduced and annotated in English and with pinyin.
Features
- six levels (500 - 3000 words)
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paperback, Kindle, and Pleco editions available
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audio available as downloadable mp3s
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pinyin for lower levels, with card for hiding pinyin
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simplified characters only
This series selects topics from Chinese mythology, legends, folklore, literary classics, biographies of renowned people and historical tales. Each story also includes an introduction to the main characters in Chinese and English, new words with English explanations and sample sentences, and an English translation of the story.
Features
- seven levels (150 - 2500 words)
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paperback, Kindle, and Pleco editions available
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audio available as downloadable mp3s
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accompanying English translation
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footnotes with new vocabulary as it's introduced
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exercises for the reader
This series presents the famed Journey to the West story from Chinese mythology as a series of nine readers for beginning intermediate students, as well as several stories geared towards beginners.
Features
- 600-, and 1200-word levels
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paperback and Kindle editions available
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audio available on YouTube
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simplified and traditional editions available
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footnotes with new vocabulary as it's introduced
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full glossary of all words used in the story
These bilingual books are designed to help Chinese language learners master vocabulary through reading. These books first present the story sentence-by-sentence, with pinyin and English below each Chinese sentence, then present it paragraph-by-paragraph. It’s a good way of making it easy to find the meaning or pronunciation of words you don’t know, while the paragraph-by-paragraph presentation allows the more advanced reader not to be bothered with pinyin above every word.
Features
- six levels (150, 300, 600, 1200, 2500, and 5000 words)
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glossary of difficult words used in the story
Designed specifically with practice for the HSK exams in mind, these books are "100% certified" to contain only Chinese characters from the target HSK vocabulary list. This series solves the problem of unfamiliar vocabulary by including a paragraph-by-paragraph version with accompanying pinyin and English, as well as a full-story version in characters.
Features
- four levels (150, 300, 1200, and 5000 words)
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paperback and Kindle editions available
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separate pinyin and English for each paragraph
These books each include full story with characters as well as a paragraph-by-paragraph version with accompanying pinyin and English. These books provide very targeted practice for the HSK exam, covering all of the words for the specified level without requiring many additional words.
Features
- three levels (150, 300, 600 words)
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paperback and Kindle editions available
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mp3s available for download
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glossary of difficult vocabulary
These short stories are drawn from famous Chinese myths and legends.
Features
- all books are described as "Level 1" (approximately 2000-3000 words)
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paperback and Kindle editions available