This book was another book that won the Washington State Children's Choice Picture Book Award. The pictures were a great depiction of the chinese culture and very detailed and colorful. The book was about a poor family in china that wanted to have a new years party but didn't have much to give and the little boy finds a magic wok and it takes from the very mean and cruel rich family in town and gives it to the poor. The book is very humorous and and it's very cultural and tells the story of the Chinese New Year in the Author's Note and even a recipe for fried rice in a wok at the end of the book! The book also had a lot of repetition in it and would be great to read aloud to a class because you could pause and have them repeat some of the lines and you could have the class use their prediction skills. This book is so charming! The drawings seem spontaneous and full of life, and the story is bright and magical. If I were to bring up one problem with it, it's that the evildoers who come to a bad end don't seem bad enough to have been singled out to this degree. Still, this is a great book if you're looking for a picture book with exceptionally colourful and beautiful illustrations and simple but equally colourful writing. And boy oh boy did it ever make me want Chinese food!
This is a great book to teach kids about sharing. Great illustration. Must read.
—messer16
Fractured fairytale--loved the wok zipping here and there.
—toni
Madelyn LOVED this one - skippity hoppity ho!
—Alyse
Have audio version, too
—Linda
