Skip to main content

Dumplings For Lili


Written by Melissa Iwai
Norton Young Readers, 2021. Picture Book.

Lili loves to make dumplings with her Nai Nai. Her grandmother has taught her all the secrets for making delicious baos, from kneading the dough to making the filling that goes inside. One day Nai Nai and Lili are busy making dumplings when Nai Nai discovers that they are out of cabbage. She asks Lili to run up to the sixth floor of their apartment building and borrow some cabbage from a friend. Babica is happy to share some of her cabbage but she needs some potatoes so she asks Lili to go ask Granma on the second floor for some potatoes. Lili goes up and down the stairs taking ingredients to six different grandmothers until finally a very tired Lili returns to her apartment to help finish their dumplings  When all the food is ready six grandmothers bring the delicious food outside to celebrate the arrival of Lili's new baby brother. 

This charming story introduces the reader to different cultures as Lili goes from apartment to apartment. Bright engaging art shows how different each grandmother's apartment is with its own unique style representative of their culture and country. There is a warmth and charm about this sunny picture book that describes how a multicultural community comes together to celebrate food, friendship and love. A sweet story about neighbors gathering together to welcome a new baby and a perfect book to introduce children to a variety of cuisines and cultures.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...

Review: The Memory Spinner

The Memory Spinner Written by C.M. Cornwell New York : Delacorte Press, 2025. Fiction. 281 pages. Fantasy is a genre that I don't often read. When I finish a good fantasy book, I always ask myself why I don't read more of them! This book made me ask myself that exact question. Lavender is a young girl who is struggling after the death of her mother. Her father doesn't like talking about the family's loss, and Lavender feels very alone in knowing how to grieve and cope with her feelings. Making the grieving process even harder for Lavender is the fact that she is struggling to hold on to memories of her mother.  The family runs an apothecary shop where Lavender is an apprentice. She has dreamed of her apprenticeship for a long time, putting in a lot of work to show her father she is a valuable asset. Unfortunately, while working side by side with her father, Lavender starts to notice that memories of her mother aren't the only thing she is having a hard time recallin...

Review: Kareem Between

  Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages.  Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...