Customer Reviews

The Story of Noodles

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This is the second of the Boulder-based author's planned trilogy on the origins of three Chinese inventions: chopsticks, noodles, and (I believe) paper. The stories all feature the Kang brothers, three boisterous young boys who live in ancient China and have a penchant for accidentally coming up with new technologies. In this story, the brothers manage to make a mess of the dumpling dough their mother has left them to shape. The dough ends up torn into strips, but they discover that the strips make a tasty dish when they are cooked. This mian tiao (flour strips) dish ends up winning the annual cooking contest.

Children will enjoy the description of the different ways of eating noodles: rolled on the chopsticks is "eating a drumstick"; slurping the noodle is "sucking a worm"; and biting the noodles is "cutting the grass." Young readers will also undoubtedly enjoy the author's note that people in China customarily make big slurping noises while eating noodles.

The illustrations-papercuts which have bold lines and colors reminiscent of stained glass-complement the boisterous, happy tone of the book. As an added bonus, Compestine includes a recipe for "Long-Life Noodles" and a note about the history and customs of noodles.

Perhaps there needs to be more of a cultural connection to the foods in this book, but I loved this book from the moment we first read it to our girls, then 3 and 5. The antics of the Kang brothers are amusing but also ingenious. Their ability to turn an otherwise troublesome situation into something positive--resulting in a major invention is a lesson for us all--to look at each situation as an opportunity and a way to solve a problem. I intend to use this book (as well as the others in this series) as part of an author study for the students in my Mandarin Chinese class.

We bought this book because we loved The Runaway Rice Cake and it was Chinese New Year. Both my girls, 4 & 6, always ask me to reread favorite books. This one went on the shelf and is gathering dust.