Module 2 Review 3

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Simonds, Nina; Swartz, Leslie; The Children’s Museum of Boston. 2002. MOONBEAMS, DUMPLINGS AND DRAGON BOATS. Ill. By Meilo So. New York, NY. Gulliver Books. ISBN 0152019839.

PLOT SUMMARY
A great team effort resulted in a unified presentation of stories, recipes and activities surrounding five different Chinese festivals. The festivals include the New Year, the Lantern Festival, Qing Ming, the Cold Foods Festival, The Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid Autumn Moon Festival. A description of the lunar year clarifies how the festival days are set each year. The stories are short and easily understood, drawing simple connections to the various festival activities. For example, preparing tanggua, or melon shaped candies that are sticky as the New Year approaches in order to “…stuff the Kitchen God’s mouth with the candy to make certain there will be good health and bountiful crops in the coming year.”
The watercolor paintings are well-placed, sized and positioned, allowing for ease of reading and attention to detail.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Some recipes appear to be simple enough for children to follow and have success, while others seem a bit more advanced and involve higher level cooking techniques, such as in Sweet Rice Packages. The activities included in this collection vary enough to appeal to a variety of children, as long as they enjoy crafting.
The stories, or tales, included in this collection tend to sound simplified with very little action and detail. The settings are directly related to the calendar and festivals. The characters seem flat and underdeveloped which is probably due to the brevity of the stories. There is a sense of lesson-learning in the selections, which can evoke disinterest among some children.
Beautiful flowing and exquisite detail in the watercolor illustrations.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Kirkus starred September 15, 2002
“An index would have allowed users to return easily to a favorite recipe, activity, or story, but the work is well organized and worth some page-turning to find a specific selection. A guide to Chinese pronunciation and two pages of additional resources are included. No library should be without this well-designed, beautiful, and informative resource.”

Booklist October 15, 2002 Vol. 99, No. 4
“Attractively designed, the pages include plenty of white space, creating a fine background for So's brilliantly colored, stylized paintings.

CONNECTIONS
When I read the choices for this assignment, I found the title to be attractive and pleasant. Yet as I read the book, I found I really didn’t want to finish the reading. I’m not sure if it is because this work is more of a reference guide, or if the stories are so shallow that the interest is sustained. As a general rule, my oldest daughter and I love to read cookbooks and try new recipes, yet her reaction to this book was much like mine.

I found the guide to pronunciation was informative and useful.