Jama Kim Rattigan's vivid, volorful picture book brings us to the Hawaiian islands. Women in a Korean family gather together and celebrate New Year. As part of a family tradition, the cheerful clan make dumplings for the feast. Seven-year-old Marisa is old enough to help out with the wrappings. Little Marisa, however, worries about the shape of her dumplings and feels insecure about how her concoction might not measure up with other dumplings. Marisa's Granny decides to cheer up and encourage her little princess. Granny features Marisa's dumplings as starters at the dinner table on New Year's Day. Dumpling Soup is more than a picture book-it is a celebration of cultures that have rooted in the Hawaiian Islands: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Hawaiians.

Dumpling Soup is both well-written and beautifully illustrated. Within the context of a simple story, (little girl, family celebration) Jama Kim Rattigan has managed to interweave such issues as: rite of passage, diversity and multiculturalism, and familial strength. I did not find the story "didactic" in the least; it and its illustrations are enjoyable and refreshing. The book provides children with (rare) exposure to Korean-, Japanese- and Hawaiian-American cultures, while utilizing themes common to all cultures. A must/fun read for all!

I, like the author, am a 3rd generation asian and this story was a fantastic vehicle to convey some of my childhood/history to my child. The story had a nice asian america mix to it. Mahalo to the author for writing this wonderful story.

Truman has an interesting and clever aunt who seems to enjoy sending him unpredictable and adventurous gifts for his birthday. Naturally he is suspicious whenever the packages from his aunt arrive. However, in this instance he is overjoyed, because his aunt has apparently fulfilled his fond wish to own an "ant" farm. After sending away for this farm, however, what arrives at his doorstep is a growing collection of "aunts", in various shapes and sizes and temperaments, all very aunt-like. What he does with this situation takes up most of the rest of the book. My four year old daughter had a bit of trouble understanding the subtle word play between "ant" and "aunt"--not being able to detect the difference in spelling and needing me to explain the difference as we went along--which took away much of the impact. An older child might enjoy it quite alot more.

I found myself thinking that the person who would really enjoy this book was my younger sister, all of forty-something, who is the quintessential aunt and would probably find the book hilarious. But I wouldn't buy it for a four year old.

I bought this book for my daughter and my nephews when theywere 5, 6, and 7 y.o. They loved it and understood the aunt/ant wordplay. We read and reread this book, and even I never tired of it. And at the end of the book I always asked them, what did Truman's aunt do that made her so special, and they replied she really listened and she had fun with him. Good things for adults to do with kids.