I love books with jyutping! It is inclusive to families who are learning to speak or read in Cantonese. Cantonese is a very hard language, a consistent pronunciation guide is helpful for us learners to learn together, communicate with each other and look up unfamiliar words. If you are new to jyutping, it is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Jyutping and Yale are the most common Cantonese romanization. However, I have found jyutping is more accessible than yale. To learn more about jyutping, you can watch the following videos on YouTube: jyutping introduction and Cantonese tones.
I am thrilled to see many Cantonese resources available now. The community has really thrived in the last couple of years. Below I will share some books that have jyutping that you might want to add to your home library.
Cantonese Children Stories written in Spoken Cantonese
These books are written in the way that Cantonese people speak. You will see words such as 嘅 instead of 的 and 係 instead of 是.
- My Troublesome Little Sister by Farina Leong (Little Canto Learning) – Available on Amazon
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs by Ann Hamilton (Mooliprint) – Available on Amazon
- Lele Goes Out to Play by Tiffany Kwan (Lele and Monkey) – Available on her website
- Mina Goes to the Beach by Katrina Liu (Mina Learns Chinese) – Available on Amazon, More titles coming soon
- Let’s Have Dim Sum, Chinese Bakery by Kapo Szeto (Cue Education) – More titles available on her website
- Today is my Birthday! by Deborah Lau (Cat Like Studio Books) – Available on Amazon
Cantonese Stories written in Spoken Cantonese
These books are written in the way that Cantonese people speak. You will see words such as 嘅 instead of 的 and 係 instead of 是.
Hambaanglaang has 40 different print titles available. You can purchase a hard copy on Little Kozzi if you are in Canada. They also have free resources available on their YouTube and their website.
Cantonese Stories in Written Cantonese
These books are written in the standard written form.
- Lucky Red Mittens, I Love My Daddy by Samantha Chan (Joksingjai) – Available on Amazon, more titles available
- Chinese Legends by M Kan & H Wang (Super Speak Juniors) – Available on Amazon
Vocabulary Books
- My First Words in Chinese, Daily Vocabulary, My House by Farina Leong (Little Canto Learning) – Available on Amazon, more titles available
- My First Everyday Words, My First Animals by Karen Yee (Green Cow Books) – Available on Amazon and Little Kozzi, more titles available (not pictured)
Idioms and Sayings
Cantonese.jpg, Cantonese2.jpg by Ah To – Available on Little Kozzi
Learn to Speak Cantonese
- Learn to Speak Cantonese 1, Learn to Speak Cantonese 2 by Jade Wu (Inspirlang) – Available on Amazon
- Every Day Cantonese for Parents by Ann Hamilton (Mooliprint) – Available on Amazon
Nursery Rhymes
Cantonese classic nursery rhymes contain more than 50 classic Cantonese nursery rhymes. – Available on Little Kozzi, more titles available (Tang Poetry and Song Poetry)
Coming Soon
- Katrina Liu (Mina Learns Chinese) is working on translating more of her titles into Cantonese
- The team at Bitty Bao (Lulu and Lacey) is also working on translating their titles to Cantonese as well