Have you been doing flashcards for a couple of weeks and you’re scared of trying to read anything in Chinese?

Have you tried to read a news article only for you to realize you could only pick out a few words here and there?

Do you need a confident boost early on in your learning journey, so that you’ll be daydreaming what the future is going to look like when you finally become fluent?

Then Twenty Three Cats is going to be just perfect for you. This is as simple of a graded reader as you can possibly get. With only 101 words (they added an extra 1 because you can’t describe cats and dogs without the measure word 只), it’s the best first choice for anyone who wants to step in to the world of graded readers without feeling like a (complete) idiot.

The plot isn’t anything to write home about, considering the limitations. My one-line summary of this story would be:-

SPOILERS! Don’t recommend reading this until you finish the book (or you’re already beyond this level).

A kid living alone without his parents in Beijing has twenty three cats that bother him all the time to the point that he took in a dog thinking it would eat all of them - turns out he got bribed by the cats and ended up befriending them instead.

This was my first graded reader and I’m glad I read it. My experience of re-reading and re-listening to the story multiple times until I finally “get” what happens is likely something I’m going to experience over and over again even as I get better at Chinese. Finding out what the plot is actually about is quite funny in retrospect. Why on Earth are his parents not charged with parental abuse for leaving their kid all alone to take care of twenty three cats? Why is a kid able to adopt a dog without any training whatsoever? Why can the dog talk to him but not the cats? What kind of sadist thinks of getting a dog to eat all his cats just because his (girl) friend tells him to!?

As with all other Imagin8 Press titles, you can listen to this book for free on Youtube or download the audio file directly from their website. Available in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

So, what are you waiting for? Get it now!

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