Dumpling Days by Grace Lin
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 wish this book came with a list of suggested restaurants. I really really need to try soup dumplings! (Cue stomach grumbles)