Dumpling Days by Grace Lin is based on the author's experiences in Taiwan as a child and as an adult. In the story, Pacy Lin is the daughter of two immigrants from Taiwan. She has never learned Chinese, but now her family is traveling to Taiwan for the entire summer! Initially, worried about how she will fit in, Pacy learns about her Chinese heretiage and discovers what it means to be Chinese-American.I highly recommend reading this book with your young children. It is filled with information on what to expect when visiting Taiwan (or China) from learning that the ice cream truck song might not mean what you think to discovering the 101 building. My children and I read through this together (a chapter or two a week) before our summer-long trip to Taiwan and it has really helped my kids talk about some of the things they had been worried about. It also helped us create a list of things we wanted to do while in Taiwan, like eat soup dumplings!
No matter whether your family speaks Chinese or only English and no matter whether your children have never been to Taiwan/China or if they've only been a few times, this is a great book for kids in
kindergarten through 5th grade.
For more information, please visit the author's website at www.gracelin.com.