Grandmothers-Feeding Our Hearts And Our Bodies

Last evening a character, a grandfather, in a story was complaining repeatedly about getting old.  He did not have one good word to say.  Everything was wrong about adding years to your life.  By the time the adventure he, his lifelong friend, his grandson and his grandson's friends shared was coming to an end, he remarked to his grandson about the grave error in his previous thinking.  He realized getting old was a gift.  It is one of the best gifts of all best gifts.

This change in perspective which many elders hold dear and live as a truth allows them to relish their neighbors, friends, and family.  For many of them, this joy is expressed in the art of cooking.  Dumplings for Lili (Norton Young Readers, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company, June 1, 2021) written and illustrated by Melissa Iwai is a story of one granddaughter, many grandmothers, and the search for specific ingredients.  Which dumpling is the best?

It's a special day

when Nai Nai says:

Lili, do you

want to help

me make

baos?

These delectable delights are Lili's favorite food.  Her grandmother has passed to her granddaughter eight secrets in making them taste scrumptious. Side by side they work until a startling discovery is made.  There is no cabbage to help with the eighth secret.  

Lili rushes to Babcia, another grandmother, who lives on the sixth floor to borrow cabbage. Unfortunately, the elevator is out of service.  She and her pooch pal, Kiki, run up the flights of stairs.  Babcia does have cabbage, but she is out of potatoes for making her pierogi.  She makes a request of Lili.  Down she and Kiki go to the second floor.  

Once there, Granma has potatoes by lacks an item for her recipe.  Up and down the stairs Kiki and Lili go from one grandmother to another, receiving and giving necessary food elements for each of their delicacies.  She and Kiki are exhausted.  Finally, they are back with Nai Nai.

Later, six grandmothers and Lili meet outside, each bringing a version of their dumpling dishes.  It is a gathering of goodness, for hearts and bodies.  And yes, dear reader, one more dumpling makes an appearance, a seventh dumpling.  It is another of the best gifts of the best gifts.

Like blending the elements in a recipe, author Melissa Iwai combines narrative and conversation to welcome readers to go on this journey of culture, language, and cooking with Lili.  The secrets are interlaced in the story flawlessly.  Word choices convey the lively spirit of Lili, Kiki, and the beloved grandmothers.  Here is a passage.

As Kiki and I are about to leave, she says, "!O, cielos!

I'm out of cumin! How will I finish my tamales?"

I remember that Nonna on 3rd floor has lots of

spices in her kitchen.  "Don't worry, Abuela," I say.

"Kiki and I will go ask Nonna for cumin!"

The first hint readers have of the happiness found in the pages of this book is on the open and matching dust jacket and book case.  On the front, we meet Lili framed in shades of green flora as she inhales the wondrous odor of the cooked baos.  Around those we see dumplings representing food traditions from other countries. 

To the left, on the back, the spring green hue continues, covering the entire surface.  Dancing in the center are Lili and Kiki.  Kiki's front paws are being held by Lili, as the dog balances on its hind legs.

On the opening and closing endpapers, a culinary bliss greets readers.  Placed on a canvas of pale blue are recreations of six kinds of dumplings in an enticing pattern.  They are labeled in white, fatayer, ravioli, bao, pierogi, tamale, and Jamaican beef patty.

On the initial title page, two bao, one with a missing bite, are featured.  A two-page illustration, including the apartment building on the left with the grandmothers and Lili in windows, is displayed for the formal title page.  Pigeons roost and fly around the homes.

The images in this book rendered in watercolor and layered digitally by artist Melissa Iwai are a visual gallery of diversity.  Through her research, elements representing each culture are included in the depictions of each grandmother's home.  The details ask readers to pause at each page turn, noticing what is on the shelves and the walls.  Many of the significant words are shown in speech bubbles. 

The pictures vary in size from double-page images to a group of smaller illustrations on a single page, and single-page pictures, with and without framing.  These, along with different perspectives, enhance the careful pacing.  Readers (this reader) will especially enjoy the large double-page image mapping Lili's adventure up and down the stairs of the six floors.  It reminds us of names and dumplings.  Careful readers will also note the passage of time by looking at the various clocks on the walls.  

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is that of Nai Nai tying the back of the apron on Lili.  There is something loving and intimate about this action between a grandmother and her granddaughter.  It is a single-page picture.  We are close to the duo.  The colors in Nai Nai's clothing and glasses are reflected in the fruit on the pockets of Lili's apron.  Kiki is seated and watching near the kitchen table.  Tools needed for the making of the baos are placed on the table.

For a commemoration of food, grandmothers, friends, family, and an array of cultures, Dumplings for Lili written and illustrated by Melissa Iwai is an exceptional selection.  Through her writing and artwork, it is a sensory experience, one we would gladly duplicate.  At the close of the book, two pages are dedicated to Nai Nai's Baos.  There we can use ingredients and secrets to make our own baos.  Melissa Iwai's delicate drawings show us exactly how to fold the dumplings.  I highly recommend this title for both your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Melissa Iwai and her other work, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  Melissa Iwai has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  This book and the writing and illustrating process are showcased at Kathleen Temean's Writing and Illustrating, Jama Rattigan's Jama's Alphabet Soup, and librarian, collegiate lecturer, and writer John Schumacher's Watch. Connect, Read.  At the publisher's website you can preview portions of the book.

A Recipe for Perfection

Food, like stories, connects us.  We need it to physically survive but it represents more.  Food preparation and delivery is an art form.  Culinary schools train the best chefs who work in a vast array of restaurants and private homes.  Numerous cookbooks published each year become bestsellers; some, decades old, are classic staples in any collection, public or private.  Food videos, shows and networks are highly popular.

For every professional chef, there are thousands more cooks who assemble ingredients and supply meals for their families, friends or community members every day.  Of these meals some are traditional, cultural or commemorative.  They evoke sensory memories and, yes, for some of these foods there are stories told about them year after year, generation after generation.  In Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao (Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, October 1, 2019) written by Kat Zhang with illustrations by Charlene Chua a little girl loves the taste of the bao made by her parents and grandmother. Her one wish is to make this savory delight as delectable as theirs is.

Amy can do a lot of things.

She brushes her teeth.  She ties her shoes.  She really wants to make the perfect bao, but she can't.  Every time her bao are flawed.  Their size is wrong.  The filling is the incorrect amount.  Unfortunately, her bao tend to fall apart, not always, but sometimes.

Today, Amy decides is the day her bao will be perfect.  Her father mixes the dough.  Together they knead it, punch it and leave it to rise.  Then her father punches it again, rolls it and cuts it into slices.

Amy's mother is in charge of combining delicious elements with the meat.  When Amy, her grandmother, mother and father sit around a table to make the bao, she is hopeful.  Her grandmother's bao is perfect.  Her mother's bao is perfect.  Her father's bao is perfect.  Amy's bao is not.  She is crestfallen.

Suddenly Amy looks at the dough and draws a wonderful conclusion.  She shares an idea with her grandmother.  Her grandmother's actions help to fulfill a heart's desire.  And Amy . . . discovers something else, something we all need to discover and remember.


With her first sentence, author Kat Zhang invites readers into this story.  We want to know what things she can do, and Kat Zhang tells us, inserting a bit of humor, too.  Then she tells us what Amy cannot do and the tale unfolds.

Reasons for her lack of perfection in making bao follow; along with those who can make perfect bao.  Already we are cheering for this girl.  Repetition of key words and phrases further bind us to the narrative.  Each short, descriptive sentence builds on the others fashioning a tender tension until we truly feel every emotion Amy Wu experiences.  This is why we all love the ending.  Here are two passages.

Amy's first bao turns out a little
funny.  So does the second.

It's hard to know how much filling to
add.  Too little and the bao is sad and
empty.  Too much and ---oops!


Look at the front of the open and matching dust jacket and book case!  The expression on Amy Wu's face and her kitten's face is enough to make anyone smile or laugh.  I love that they are waving on top of an enormous bao with light and clouds radiating from it as if they are heroes.  (Which they are!)  To the left, on the back, standing among clouds in the lower, left-hand corner, Amy's arms are extending as a bao slips from her grasp.  It arcs toward her sitting and kneeling grandmother and parents.  Here in a thought bubble Amy defines bao for readers.  On the dust jacket, the characters are varnished as are the yellow lines in the clouds.

A vibrant sea green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the initial title page, the title text appears in a large bao.  With a page turn a muted shade of the sea greens spans two pages.  These pages are peppered with a variety of bao.  In the lower, right-hand corner the kitten assists readers in the pronunciation of bao.  At the bottom is an author's note about the pronunciation.  Illustrator Charlene Chua on the next double-page image gives readers pure delight.  Beneath the publication information Amy Wu is peaking over a pale orchid-colored table.  All we see is her face, close to us.  Her eyes are on a perfect bao, larger than life, sitting on a plate on the right.  You feel a surge of happiness when looking at this visual.

The digital illustrations, in varying sizes of several smaller ones on a single page, to full page, edge to edge, and several double-page pictures are full color.  They are animated with lively depictions of the characters.  Readers will be fascinated and filled with joy at all the details.  Amy Wu's kitten reinforces emotions and adds touches of humor.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is one of several close-ups of Amy Wu's face.  On this single-page picture Amy is attempting to pinch the bao closed.  With the dining room wallpaper as a background on a small portion of the left, the remainder of the image is filled with Amy's face and hands.  Her intense expression of concentration is fabulously portrayed.  She is holding the bao in her left hand and trying oh so hard to pinch, pinch, pinch it closed perfectly.  (You have to love this little girl.)


As a read aloud, one-on-one or with a group, Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao written by Kat Zhang with illustrations by Charlene Chua is a wonderful choice.  For those striving to perfect something of importance to them, they will find a clever champion in Amy Wu. At the close of the book Amy's Family Recipe is included on two pages.  I highly recommend this for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Kat Zhang and Charlene Chua and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites. At Kat Zhang's site there is a link to a coloring page.  At Charlene Chua's site there is an interior illustration not included in those shown at the publisher's website.  At the publisher's website you can also watch a video on how to make bao along with being able to print out the recipe.  Kat Zhang has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Charlene Chua has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.  I think you'll enjoy the cover reveal on Pragmatic Mom (Mia Wenjen).  At author Tara Lazar's site, Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) she chats with Kat Zhang and Charlene Chua about this title.  Kat Zhang writes a guest post at the Nerdy Book Club about this book.