The Misadventures of Zhou Haisheng: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Breakthrough Level Kindle Edition

OMGB (Oh My God, Becky) I really did read a book in Chinese!I'm not in school, but I have been learning Chinese for fun on my own for about 3.5 months. The breakthrough level of these graded readers is PERFECT for me at this stage (I study about 2 hours per day). Here's a list of the reasons why they are so great:-You can practice reading longer form text that uses high-frequency characters. My character recognition improved as soon as I was done with the first chapter!-Reading out loud is a great way to practice your cadence and natural speech.-interesting stories even at the breakthrough level using only 150 characters. Will 周海生 get in trouble for making noodles??? What's that kid at the other restaurant saying? Put your Chinese reading skills to use and find out!-The list of grammar points in the back is also extremely useful. The headings directly correspond with the headings on Chinese Grammar Wiki (which if you already aren't using, you should).-it's very encouraging to be able to read at this level. It definitely takes you beyond the textbook things like "Miss Zhang's clothes are very pretty", "Do you eat apples?", "Is it raining in Shanghai?", which can get pretty boring.-At least for me, it is encouraging me to reach the next level in a few months (Level 1 readers).This kind of content is so good for beginners and I believe will help to decrease the "drop-off" rate for Chinese learners. It CAN get pretty frustrating at times, so give yourself a little encouragement and learn in a fun and engaging way!I know there are plans for a few more breakthrough readers to be released in the coming months and I know I will be buying them all!

I don't know Chinese but my kids are in the immersion program and I have spent years looking for ways to help them with their Chinese. These books have been one of the most useful tools. My twelve year old has read most of the level 1 books. My daughter that is nine struggles with Chinese reading. We got these easier books and her brother has been helping her read them. Since they are a beginning level she can review things she has forgotten and still read enough to feel confident.

I have read several books in this series, in all three levels, and have thoroughly enjoyed every one. Pedagogically, they are masterful -- not only systematically introducing and reviewing vocabulary items, but in particular doing the same thing with grammatical patterns, chosen carefully for each level. You feel yourself learning the patterns as you go, with each varied repetition. The kicker, to me, is that they also manage to be page-turners! Even in the "Breakthrough Level" stories with only 150 characters apiece, I always wanted to find out what happened next with the characters and plot. So the learning just slips in pretty effortlessly. (I did have to work harder with the one Level 2 story I have read so far.) I hope more stories will be forthcoming!

It's great to be able to read something at my level. Even though I know all the characters, this beginner book is exposing me to new words and phrases. I am enjoying reading it.

On Kindle, highlights aren't being looked up in a Chinese dictionary. I'm guessing the language of the book isn't set to Chinese.

Excellent early learning book. My 8 and 6 year old really like reading it.

I wish this book would have come out 4-5 years ago when I was first starting to read characters. It will be a great resource for the upper beginner learner. I'm going through it with my daughter and with only 150 unique characters she's getting a ton of repetition. Thanks for putting this out. Now, how about a few more level 2 books!

I love having simple stories with 150 characters. Awesome! My daughter in 5th grade Chinese immersion was able to read and enjoy this book. Definitely recommend for 4-6 grades of Chinese immersion students. Looking forward to more books in this series.

Fantastic book, enjoyed this very much and it helped me improve. This is perfect reading if taking HSK2. I have taken HSK1 and about to take HSK2 and found this book to be at the extensive reading level as recommended. I only had to stop once or twice a page and sometimes this was out of interest in the gramma. If you know up to HSK2 well then almost all words will be familiar and the gramma will be at your level. The stories are cute enough to add to the feeling of accomplishment and are well thought through. You also learn as you progress through the book due to repetition of material.

I'm really pleased with this - i am relatively new to Chinese (about 8 months ago i started an evening class) and have been focusing on my speaking and listening so I've really fallen behind on my HSK1 characters. I wanted a good way to refresh those and introduce some new ones, and I'm finding this perfect for me. Lots of repetition, so I am easily solidifying characters that I had forgotten, and learning new ones.I love that the inner pages are colour, with some great illustrations, i am a very visual person so the colour helps keep me motivated! New words are underlined and have pinyin provided at the bottom of each page, and names/locations are underlined in grey so you know not to try and translate them every time.Exactly what i need to get the characters in my brain in a fun way, I'm carrying it around and reading/studying it during my train commute to and from work and at lunchtimes. Highly recommend.

I got this book to train me to recognise the easiest characters and it did more in a dozen pages than weeks of rote learning with flashcards did in months. Although, doing both at the same time yielded the best results overall.

great job

The characters are a good size and easy to read. I am disappointed that the audio for Level One has to be purchased separately through audible that charges a monthly fee. I would like to be able to purchase the audio in an MP3 and be able to use on any device without having to go through an APP or stream. I hope this is changed for the beginners level when the audio is available.