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Dumpling Days (2012)

by Grace Lin(Favorite Author)

4.12 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0316125903 (ISBN13: 9780316125901)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Little, Brown

series

Pacy

review 1: This is the second book I've listened to by Grace Lin about Gracie Pacy Lin. In this second book, Pacy's family is going to visit their relatives in Taiwan for 26 days. Pacy and her 2 sisters don't speak any Chinese even though both parents are from Taiwan. The U.S. is really the only home and culture they know and they are a bit apprehensive about it. How will they fit in. Plus, their Mom has signed them up each in a different class while they are in Taiwan. School during the summer!?! The title comes from Pacy's love of dumplings which she finds in abundance in Taiwan and which are in a way a bridge between America and Taiwan. I quite enjoyed this book and can identify in some ways with Pacy, being myself a "twinkie" fully immersed in the Western culture. I don't know ... morehow I would fare if I had to acquaint myself with my Asian side of the family, if I should find them. I only lived just over a year in Asia as a small child, three of these months being an infant. It is fun to follow Pacy's journey in Taiwan including the unfamiliar foods among which is stinky tofu--meant quite literally. I'm pretty adventurous food-wise but I might give this one a pass. It was described as smelling like the toilets in the subway station...apparently a great delicacy to her relatives which couldn't get enough of it. But then, I love the stinky French cheeses of my childhood so...
review 2: Pacy is ten and lives in New York state. Both of her parents are from Taiwan, and in this installment, she travels with her parents and sisters for a month to Taiwan. She tries new things there, some of which are icky, some of which are great. She experiences new things in a country where she can't read the signs or the menus or the instructions on the toilet. She gets to know her extended family a little better.Never heavy-handed, Lin lets the reader see an Asian nation through the eyes of a child who looks Asian, but is totally American. She gets to experience a little of what her own parents must have felt as immigrants. Mostly, I like that Pacy is never holding anything back: when she's scared or delighted or grossed out, she tells us. Traveling with her is mostly a delight (although she's right about how boring planes can be).Library copy. less

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