The Misadventures of Zhou Haisheng: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Breakthrough Level, Traditional Chinese Edition

"Breakthrough Level, Traditional Character Edition. 5 Stories" First of all, THANK YOU for publishing a traditional character edition, the best way in my view to read Chinese. Simplified characters are easy if you know traditional characters and traditional characters are far more beautiful and understandable, even if a few are hard to write.Despite what I say below, these books are all worth reading and are delightful stories. I read all five of the "Breakthrough Level" Chinese readers published by this company. While these books are at the most beginning stage for this series, they are not easy reading. There are words not explained and not in HSK 1. You need help in looking up these characters, if you don't know them. The writers used their own approach to a beginner's vocabulary. Fortunately, the same writers wrote all five books, so their vocabulary is the same throughout. The books get a little easier as you go through them. Best to read each story several times and make flash cards of important vocabulary. There is a grammar section at the back of each book, but it only mentions the point; it does not explain how it works. That is a serious omission for anyone wanting to read and learn on their own. Without that explanation, many sentences are obscure. The Wikipedia article "Chinese Grammar" I found useful. Otherwise, goggle "simple Chinese grammar." Clearly these stories are meant for the classroom, not for the self-taught. There is no list of all the vocabulary in the back or an English translation. They do offer translations of certain words in the text, but again, their way of selecting words to translate is not clear. If you need something easier to get you started, I liked Twenty Three Cats by Jeff Pepper, which uses 101 words from the HSK 1 list (available on Amazon) or download the free Pleco app and look under add-ons.