Customer Reviews

Dim Sum for Everyone

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 2 yr old son absolutely loves this book! He can recite every single page!
I grew up speaking Cantonese and I didn't know how to pronounce all the dim sum dishes, but Ms. Lin has helped by listing the most popular dim sum dishes with the English translation and Cantonese pronunciations at the end of the book.
This book also contains very colorful illustrations and a little descriptive history on dim sum.
As for "two shoes", that is what seems to come out of my son's mouth whenever he tries to say "dishes". :)

Each person in the family picks out something different as the cart with the little dishes comes around in the dim sum restaurant. With a sing-song rhythm, Lin describes the familiar ritual of a family having dim sum together, describing as she does so a bit of Chinese culture. "Little dishes on carts. Little dishes on tables...Everyone eats a little bit of everything." Her illustrations show a table full of brightly colored plates topped with small portions of various foods: fried shrimp, turnip cakes, sweet tofu, and little egg tarts. Ma-Ma, Ba-Ba, and the three daughters wear clothes with intricate patterns, set against a backdrop of swirls. The effect is a rich mesh of textures and a collage of little plates! Lin ends the book simply as she began it with the statement, "Now there are empty little dishes." She includes the history of the dim sum tradition at the end of the book, as well as small pictures of each dim sum dish, labeled in English and Chinese.

My three year old daughter loves this book. She enjoys picking out her favorite pieces of dim sum in the book and then pointing out my favorites. The illustrations are beautiful. My daughter likes to bring the book with her when we go out for dim sum and then she matches up the food items at the restaurant with the pictures in the book. It is a good book to introduce dim sum to a child.

This book would be a terrific book to read before, during the long plane ride to China and while there for your child who is traveling with you to meet her new Mei Mei! Also can be brought along when you visit a actual Dim Sum restaurant both there in China and back home in your local Chinese restaurnant!

Grace Lin drawings are simple, but beautifully done. She uses the Chinese names of each family member and also includes a brief 2 page history on Dim Sum as well as both their Chinese names and English. When we where in China for our daughter we visited a Dim Sum restaurant which was excellent! We tried the radish cakes and our favorite was the egg tarts! We did use our 2 fingers to tap to say thank you when our cups where refilled again. Our guide told us that saying thank you this way came about when the Emperor playing a game with a lady friend and if she got up to bow to say thank you for tea interupted the game they where each time, so the Emperor made up this way of saying thanks and not interupting his game.

This is a fantastic book to teach young children about the Chinese brunch called dim sum. It has excellent illustrations and even has the correct names for some of the most popular dim sum dishes. My husband who is Chinese loves to buy this book for our god children and read it to them before we have dim sum! I completly recomend this book for anyone but especially those who are interested in the Chinese culture.

This book is the perfect introduction to dim sum. If you haven't tried it yet, take this book to a dim sum restaurant and use it to help pick your dishes--if you point to the picture of the dish on the endpapers, the waiters are sure to know what you want! Kids will love it, too. If you extra-daring, try the chicken feet! My favorite dish is the turnip or radish cake.

I love Grace Lin's work--I have all of her books!

The beauty of this book is in the brightly colored llustrations. Every page sports a bright red background with equally bright pictures. The story is about a family of five that goes out for a dim sum meal -- each person chooses what he or she likes. The pictures depict a real-looking family eating in real family fashion -- one child reaching in front of one another to grab an egg tart, one child sticking chopsticks in her mouth like walrus tusks. After the meal, the children all look sleepy and contented as Dad reaches for the bill.

The text of the book isn't particularly catchy; it is very simple and it refers to the dim sum without using any Chinese words.

I bought this book for a classroom lesson on Multiculturalism, I included a puppet with the book and the students loved it. This is a great book, and a must have for all teachers and classrooms.

There are only 2 dim sum picture books out there. This is one of them. I am 1/2 Chinese which makes my son 1/4 and I wanted to pick up some books that will help him understand the culture.

We have dim sum once a month or so and we bring this book with us when we go. It's nice to read to him the story and show him the dumplings and give him a taste.

I gave this story to my friend's little girl and she absolutely loves it too.

I have a few other books by this author because I love her storytelling!

My daughter checked this book out from the library when she was 3, she loved it so much that we ended up purchasing ti for her as a birthday gift. She is 6 now, and it is still a favorite. This is a very simple book about a family eating at a dim sum restaurant, but the images are lovely. My daughter even likes the illustrations of different dim sum dishes on the inside cover. This is an excellent book.