Dumpling Days

What a great book! The story is about a young Taiwanese-American girl named Pacy who visits Taiwan with her family. Newbery Honor-winning author Grace Lin draws on her own family trips to perfectly capture what it feels like to be caught between worlds as a child, the fears, the joys, the laughter. It reminded me so much of visiting India as a kid, meeting relatives I saw only rarely and feeling self-conscious and inadequate due my inability to speak my mother-tongue. Grace Lin's writing and illustrations are childlike, yet elegant in their simplicity. I couldn't stop smiling as I read this book and even laughed out loud in parts (the garbage truck scene is hysterical). Fair warning though if you love dumplings as much as I do, you will show more wish this book came with a list of suggested restaurants. I really really need to try soup dumplings! (Cue stomach grumbles) show less

I spent the whole book thinking how lucky Pacy and her sisters were, and I loved watching them learn to feel at home with this less familiar part of their identities. I wish I'd been able to have that experience as a kid; I'll be turning 30 this year, and I've never been to Israel or met several of my relatives who live there. For kids who have a similar situation, there will be a lot to relate to in this book, but I almost think it'd be more interesting to kids who've never had experience with a culture different from their own. And I want nothing more right now than to try all the kinds of dumplings Pacy described.

Pacy Lin is Grace Lin's semi-autobiographical character from her previous books, The Year of the Dog and the Year of the Rat. In Dumpling Days, Grace Lin has made a departure from her earlier books. Breaking out of "The Year of the" formula, with its limited page numbers, Dumpling Days is a longer book (approximately 265 pages), that offers Lin a chance to explore many facets of Chinese art, food, and culture, as well as offer deeper glimpses into the lives of Pacy's sisters, Lissy and Ki-Ki, and even their parents,

"Mom and Dad had told us about how they had moved to the United States, but I hadn't thought about their not understanding TV commercials, not being able to order food, being ignored because you didn't speak the language - show more all the things I found hard here in Taiwan. Maybe when Mom ad Dad were first in America, everything was just as strange and confusing to them as Taiwan was to me now.
It was surprising to think about."

A beautifully concise thought channeled through the voice of a young girl, easily undertood and profoundly important. In addition to offering cultural perspective, through the family's travels and activities, the reader learns much about the Chinese/Taiwanese culture.

Through classes in painting, paper-cutting, and Chinese characters, the girls learn how difficult it can be to do something that is essentially very simple. By visiting a loud and bustling Chinese temple, they learn something of the Chinese sense of humor - the temple was adorned with statues of life's four greatest pleasures,

"yawning, picking your ears, scratching your back, and picking your nose."

And Pacy and her family also see how the Taiwanese reconcile the past with the present. Tawain's Tapei 101 building (named for its 101 floors) is a symbolic building representing the last century and the future century in architecture evoking lucky Chinese coins. Despite being a modern economic and developmental powerhouse, during Ghost Month, the people of Taiwain still burn paper money as offerings to the deceased; Pacy's older Taiwanese relatives are fearful of any night travel during Ghost Month - fascinating reading for young, inquisitive minds interested in other cultures.

If I had to guess, I would say that Grace Lin is a very gentle and empathetic person. In all of her written and artistic endeavors (Ling and Ting, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Year of the Dog, etc.), she tells an engaging and insightful story in a soft and contemplative manner, with humor and without many rough edges that are so often the focus of contemporary fiction. Particularly interesting in Dumpling Days, is that, although there is a "mean character," a girl in Pacy's painting classes, it is Pacy herself who thwarts her own artistic abilities.

Dumpling Days is a perfect choice for younger readers who are ready for longer books, but perhaps not ready for the heavier content usually found in longer books. Also a perfect choice for anyone interested in Chinese culture, or readers seeking what adults term a "gentle read."
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I really enjoyed this middle grades novel by Grace Lin. I have read the first book in the three-book series, "The Year of the Dog". Pacy is a likable, funny and flawed character who is always on a quest to find out who she is and to find her place in the world. The book is well-paced to give a sense of adventure, with satisfying character growth and development. And it definitely made me start craving dumplings!

Curricular connections: with its ties to Taiwan and Taiwanese/Chinese culture, food, and traditions, this would be a good novel for children to read while studying any of these topics. It would make a nice teacher read aloud with comparisons to students' home cultures and traditions, foods, etc.

Pacy Lin, her two sisters and her parents have traveled from the small town of New Hartford, NY to Taiwan for her grandmother’s sixtieth birthday party. It is the first time the sisters have visited Taiwan and Pacy is sad to be leaving her friends for the month. Her mother enrolled her in art school, which she is unhappy about as well. Her inability to understand Chinese and Taiwanese, the hustle and bustle, traffic, strange foods and aromas and customs just add to Pacy’s sadness. She would much rather be home. The Lin sisters’ inability to speak the language is frowned upon in Taiwan and America where Pacy has been labeled a Twinkie by other Asians. She feels like a Twinkie in Taiwan. To top off her discomfort, she thinks art is show more her ‘talent’ but is finding painting with bamboo brushes on rice paper very difficult.

Grace Lin has written a Taiwan travelogue in Dumpling Days. Pacy eats dumplings on her first day and wants them every day, thus the title. Readers will certainly learn about Taiwan’s various foods (a mixture of Chinese and Japanese cultures), some Taiwanese folklore and get a sense of Taiwanese life. However, the story and writing are not compelling. The crude drawings of such things as dumplings or a McDonald’s rice burger, scattered throughout the book add little. The family Pacy meets have interesting names like her small Uncle Big but seem stereotypical. Geared for lower middle school readers, Dumpling Days is a discretionary purchase. show less

After "Year of the Dog", and "Year of the Rat", comes "Dumpling Days". The author uses a family vacation in Taiwan as the frame story for many family stories and Chinese legends. A lovely continuing story and very much autobiographical. She comes close to the live wire of politics in Taiwan mentioning the unjust persecution of one of the main character's uncle and the motivation for her family's move to the US.

Readers who met Pacy in Year of the Dog (2006) and Year of the Rat (2008) will love this latest addition to the series. Pacy's family is spending a month in Taiwan to celebrate her grandmother's 60th birthday. It's a new experience for Pacy and her sisters: new food, relatives they have not met, a language they do not understand. Lin humorously captures the mixed emotions of the girls as they are travelling (who knew the bathrooms were so different, and could be so entertaining to read about?). This title is longer than the previous two, and stands alone nicely on its own.