 
- Books and Me Children's Chinese Library, founded in 2005 by the Zhaoyu Cultural Foundation, is the first children's Chinese library in Northern California. Our library aggregates children's books in simplified and traditional characters, for children between 0 and 10 year-olds.
** 2026 Fall (9/12-10/17) library hours : 10am-4:00pm on Saturdays only;
Mandarin Story time starting 9/12 will be held at 11:40am-12:05pm.
- Important Announcements :
** A New Chapter Begins:
Books and Me Library moved to the Emerson School after the 2023 Christmas fire that destroyed our 10.000+ volumes of children books and started running the library in a much smaller scale with hundreds. We have been looking for solution to extend our services to support more families for the past 3 years. Thanks to the newly founded XinKai Cultural and Educational Foundation ((www.xinkaifoundation), they would like to set up a children's library like ours to support the community after they renovate their building in Sunnyvale! We are so excited that all our books will find a new home and also have space to room more library users!
~~The Zhaoyu Foundation and Books and Me Library will be closed permanently by December 2026 and will not accept any more membership applications starting now. Books and Me Library will be closed to the public on 10/18/2026 to start inventory and prepare moving. Please email us if you have any questions or when you plan to visit our library.
~~The fire on 2023 Christmas Day destroyed our building at 4600 El Camino Real. Books and Me Library lost everything, our books and media collections, the entire art studio, and the award winning student artworks and work in progress. Fortunately, there was no one got hurt.
We are still evaluating and looking for a way to reestablish full library service for more families in our community. A temporary library is set up now and provide lending services with a limited book collection and Saturday Mandarin story time in a classroom (~250 sq ft.) inside the Emerson school.
**Art With Yuming classes will continue staying at the Emerson School in Palo Alto and will have no impact from the library and the foundation closure. You can check out Teacher Yuming's website:
www.artwithyuming.com
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2026 Fall "Art With Yuming" Class
At Emerson School, Palo Alto
Fall Art classes will start on 9/8, 9/11 and 9/12/2026 and all taught in mainly Mandarin with English when necessary:
*NEW* Group 21 (5-7 year-olds): Tuesdays 4:15-5:15pm
* Group 51 (8-11 year-olds): Fridays 4:15-5:15pm
* Group 61 (8-11 year olds): Saturdays, 9:15-10:30am
* Group 62 (4-5 year olds): Saturdays, 10:45-11:35am
* Group 63 (6-8 year olds): Saturdays, 11:45-12:45pm
* Group 62/63P (4-7year olds): Saturdays, 1:00-1:50pm
* Group 64 (8-11 year olds): Saturdays, 2:30-3:30pm
* Group 65 (9-12 year olds): Saturdays, 3:45-5:15pm
* Portfolio Group(High School): Saturdays, 5:15-7:15 (by Invitation Only)
- 2026 Fall In-Person Elementary Abacus Class:
Starts on Saturday, 8/15/2026!
*Class Time: 12:30-1:20pm; 1:30-2:20pm Saturdays
This is class for beginners or students who has some knowledge about abacus. Will be taught in Mandarin and onsite of Emerson School In Palo Alto.
Come join the effective Elementary Abacus class. Our students, age 5 and above, won medals at regional competition! In the weekly class, they learn clear place values and number sense, and improve computation speed by special Abacus technics. Build solid foundation in math and gain confidence in the future class!
Saturday In-Person Class:
Class Time: 12:30-1:20 & 1:30-2:15pm on Saturdays; or privately arranged with Teacher Lydia
**For questions regarding Online Abacus Classes, please email librarian@zhaoyu.org and we will have our abacus teacher contact you directly!
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- Books & Me Children's Chinese Library is open to MEMBERS only.
**All check-out procedures have to be completed 15 minutes before closing time.
**Due to upcoming library permanent closure, we CANNOT accept any more donation of books and Audio/Visual materials (CDs, VCDs, VHS, or cassette tapes). You can check with the Xin Kai Education and Cultural Foundation (https://xinkaifoundation.org) to see when you can donate books to them. We really appreciate your support to Books and Me Library for all these years.
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Free In-Person Mandarin Story Time : 11:40am-12:05pm (9/12-10/17/2026).
Children's stories told in Mandarin, free for children 2-10 year-old of members. Parents or guardians are required to be with the attending children. No need to sign up for regular story time.
- Library Operating Hours:
Books and Me Library are on Emerson School in Palo Alto. We are open on Saturdays ONLY! *Please call or email librarian@zhaoyu.org for directions to get inside the school building.
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2026 Library Hours (9/12-10/17)
| Saturdays ONLY
10:00am-4:00 pm
OR by Appointment
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- Books and Me has thousands of books and audio/visual
materials for children, in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Topics cover natural sciences,
history, culture, education, parenting and more.
- To renew library items, please email to
librarian@zhaoyu.org. You only can renew once per item.
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Library Theme - The Mid-Autumn Festival
Suggested Reading List (Chinese editions):
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Book: "Taiwan Encyclopedia" Series: The Mid-Autumn Festival
Written by: Qiuling Lin
The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. However, nowadays fewer people understand why we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and admire the moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. This book guides children of all ages to further understand the "Mid-Autumn Festival". The content includes: the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival, various customs and legends about the Mid-Autumn Festival: reunion to appreciate the moon, worshiping the moon goddess, eating moon cakes, eating grapefruit, Folk activities such as worshiping the Earth God, the Su-ao swing race, and fighting for champion cakes are also introduced, as well as myths and legends such as Chang'e and Hou Yi, the toad in the moon, the Jade Rabbit making medicine, Wu Gang's cutting of laurels, and Emperor Ming's visit to the Moon Palace. This "Taiwan Encyclopedia" series is an encyclopedia written for children in Taiwan. Traditional Chinese, Zhuyin, suitable for children over five years old.
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Book: The Moon Lady
Written by: Fengzhu Wu
Once upon a time there were ten suns in the sky which caused disaster to people. A man names Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns, and turned into a beloved hero by people. However, Hou Yi became a conceited and cruel ruler, he wanted to live forever. His wife, Chang Er, stole the magic potion which would make her husband immortal.... "The Moon Lady" is a legend of Moon Festival. People worship the moon on every fifteenth day in lunar August to commemorate Chang Er. Traditional Chinese, Zhuyin, suitable for children over five years old.
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- Volunteers:
The success of Books & Me depends on your involvement. We
are looking for volunteers in many fields. Please write to hr@zhaoyu.org if you are interested in
lending a hand.
- Library Assistant/Admin
- Marketing Assistant
- Storyteller/Activity Teacher
- Activity Organizer
- Web Engineer
- Representives from Chinese schools
- Book Carriers
- Equipment:
Your junk can be a treasure for us. Please contact gift@zhaoyu.org for equipment
donations.
- Chinese children's audio CDs with or without books
- Chinese children's videos
- A flat screen computer monitor 19" or larger
- A Computer projector SVGA resolution or better
- A Projector screen
Due to space constrain, we do not accept
English books, books for adults (except parenting books), and homework
practice type of books. We also do not accept toys and craft items
unless specified on the website.
- Donations:
Public support is essential to the success of the Library. Your
donation to Books & Me through the Zhaoyu Cultural
Foundation is tax deductible. A small donation can help us bring
more books and better service to your children and the community. For
more information, please click here, or contact us at: gift@zhaoyu.org.
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The Zhaoyu Cultural Foundation (ZCF)
is
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in the State of
California. Our mission is to promote multi-lingual mastery of Chinese
language, culture and identity among overseas Chinese children in North
America.
The Books & Me Children's Chinese Library is our first
community service. For information about the Foundation and our future
plans, please click links below: |
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- We also want to thank the following volunteers for their
extraordinary work to make the library launch smoothly:
- Gina Ng
- Sheena
Chin
- Jenny Huang
- Sharon Wang
- Sharon Chiu
- Chia-Chun Wu
- Aaron Chum
- Samantha Chang
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