Dumpling Day

August 15, 2021
The aromas of homemade food sneak their way across an entire multicultural neighborhood as growling bellies wait to be filled with...dumplings! Recipes from Nigeria, Syria, China, Russia, Mexico, and more reveal tasty fillings tucked into doughs that are boiled, steamed, fried, and baked. There are potato-filled samosas and gyoza bursting with ground pork, bourekas stuffed with potatoes and cheese and shish barak swimming in yogurt soup. Count along as 10 scrumptious dumplings formed by 10 pairs of loving hands in 10 busy kitchens are placed on 10 different plates. The block party is ready to start--a dumpling picnic for all! "We eat and laugh and gather round, / We party till the sun goes down." Sriram's simple rhyming story celebrating the unifying magic of food pairs well with the childlike na�vet� of de Antu�ano's inclusive and diverse gouache illustrations. Without skipping a beat, she folds words for both dumplings and family members and their respective languages into her couplets. However, the appended recipe for tamales includes a fatal typo, to be corrected in subsequent printings. Instead of calling for dried masa flour or corn flour (two words), the recipe lists cornstarch/cornflour (the British term for cornstarch) which will produce a gravy/sludge and not a dough. Backmatter includes a map of food origins, a glossary of kinship terms, and recipes for each type of dumpling. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A fun food counting book. (Picture book. 4-7)

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October 1, 2021
Preschool-Grade 2 Peppy, rhyming text; cheerful illustrations; and a counting element combine for an enjoyable introduction to 10 types of dumpling from around the world, spanning Nigeria to Russia to Japan. Following the upbeat opening "Dumpling party today in town!," each double-page spread portrays a different family, children and adults, in their kitchens, making dumplings of various kinds. A couplet identifies each dumpling, then invites readers to count as plates fill, all the way to 10. "Spicy samosas point to the sky. / Didi is bringing her chutney to try." Next are apple dumplings, wu-gok, bourekas, tamales, and others. Eventually, everyone comes together, for a festive picnic featuring delicious food. Vibrant, folk art style illustrations depict the multicultural families and expand on the inclusive message, as do the interspersed terms for family members in various languages (like babushka, oji-san, and baba), which are defined in the appended glossary. Also included are some dumpling facts, a map connecting pinpointing the origin of the featured dumplings, and recipes for each (though those are geared more toward adults).

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July 1, 2021
Recipes by Laurel P. Jackson. "Spicy samosas point to the sky. / Didi is bringing chutney to try." Counting from one to ten dumplings, this culinary celebration visits families preparing for their town's multicultural "dumpling party." The folk art-style illustrations bring readers into bustling kitchens; the rhyming text packs a lot of cultural specificity into two lines: "Golden bourekas cool on the rack. / Saba samples the puff pastry snack." Mom makes apple dumplings, Gor gor offers stuffed wu-gok, Auntie adds fufu balls to a stew. Two pages give additional information, including a world map showing the provenance of the featured dumplings and translations of the various family members namechecked ("Gor gor: Cantonese for 'older brother'"). Hungry? The ten dumpling recipes are appended.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)