Dumpling Days - Grace Lin

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⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

How could I resist a book about a girl spending her summer in Taiwan and eating a bunch of dumplings? It's geared towards the younger side of the Juvenile Fiction spectrum, but I still quite enjoyed it.

It's about Pacy, a Taiwanese-American who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The author does such a good job making Taiwan come alive, and exploring the different things that Pacy sees and experiences. It was so accurate to how I experienced Taiwan as well, from the food to the busy streets to the high speed rail. It includes a lot of facets of Taiwanese culture, and I want to make all of the kids in my life read it.

It also explores identity and immigration in a really sweet way. Pacy struggles to feel like she belongs there when she looks like everyone else, but can't speak or read Chinese, and she often feels really lost in Taiwan, which also helps her to understand how her parents must have felt when they immigrated to the US.

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