Product Description

A tasty, original story

This striking picture book ends with a new beginning for three people who never expected to be friends – an orphaned girl cast out by her siblings, a slave escaping from a mighty emperor’s ship, and a hunchbacked old woman known for the bitter-melon and shrimp dumplings she brings to market each day – and for living in a haunted house at the edge of the marshes. As their hardship-filled paths cross, each of their lives begins to change for the better, in a moving affirmation of the power of compassion.

Set long ago in a Chinese village by the sea, Jeanne M. Lee’s meticulously illustrated story has an extraordinary flavor all its own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1909856 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Lee's (I Once Was a Monkey) delicately told tale of hardship in 15th-century China joins the fates of a girl and an escaped slave. Mei Mei's betrothal is broken off when her father dies unexpectedly and her dowry is used for his funeral. Cast out by her cruel sister-in-law, Mei Mei eventually finds refuge with a village outcast called Po Po, a deformed old woman who sells dumplings made from bitter melons and shrimp. As they grow to trust each other, Po Po tells Mei Mei of her own misfortune an early accident maimed her and drove her fianc‚ to call off their marriage and teaches the girl to make the bitter dumplings. A slave serving the emperor's fleet which has landed in order to demand food from the villagers tastes Mei Mei's dumplings in amazement, then follows her home: "This village may be the home from which I was kidnapped as a child," he realizes. Po Po quickly perceives the attraction between the two young people, and reveals hidden treasures personal as well as material to ensure their happy future. Stark details of unrelenting want and plundering raids make this a tale for the stout-hearted, but the storytelling is highly polished and the artwork luminous. The eerie, strangely static watercolors are presented mostly as panels, as if to recall screen paintings. The limpid palette carefully balances contrasting colors to achieve, like the "bitter dumplings" of the story, unexpectedly harmonious results. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-In 15th-century China, living without the protection of her family could indeed be bitter for an unmarried woman. This historical adventure recounts the struggles and eventual triumph of two women cast out from their seaside village, living at the ocean's edge. After her father's death, motherless Mei Mei's older brothers appropriate her dowry and turn her out of the house. Desperate and starving, she begs food from Po Po, the grumpy old hunchback who sells bitter melon and shrimp dumplings at the village market. Po Po's grudging exchange of food and shelter for Mei Mei's help in preparing and selling dumplings evolves into friendship and then into love. When ships from the emperor's treasure fleet sail into the harbor, a handsome slave escapes and follows Mei Mei to Po Po's house. The old woman prevents his capture and offers the young couple her own dowry, hidden away for many years. Lee's large paintings, executed in harmonious, muted colors in her characteristic style, are steeped in the Chinese aesthetic. The art is best at depicting landscape: the restless sea and the windswept marshes at its edge. Generous in text, Lee's story seems ready to overflow the confines of a 32-page picture book, and the ending is rather abrupt. Yet this tale of two strong women realistically placed in the context of their times will certainly engage older picture-book listeners, inviting them to identify with characters who lived long ago and far away.
Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 5-8. Mei Mei, an orphaned Chinese girl, becomes destitute and homeless after her brothers use her dowry to pay for their father's funeral. Eventually she befriends an old woman who is also shunned by the villagers, and the two eke out an existence selling dumplings made from bitter melon and shrimp. When a slave from a passing ship tastes the dumplings, he becomes convinced that he has eaten the delicacy before and that the village must be the one from which he was kidnapped as a child. The women help him to escape, and the three begin a happy new life. The tale about overcoming obstacles, set in fifteenth-century China, includes many folkloric elements, and the illustrations, which evoke a somewhat somber tone, are perfectly suited to the text. Lee makes particularly effective use of scroll-like panels, which add an authentic feel to the artwork, allowing her to depict several different actions on each double-page spread, and providing an attractive partition for the text. A good choice for primary-school read-alouds. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Bitter Beginnings, Sweet Future.....
"Long ago in the middle kingdom, in a village by the sea, there lived a girl called Mei Mei. She was a girl with no prospects." So begins Jeanne Lee's evocative folktale set in a fifteenth century Chinese village. When Mei Mei's father dies on the eve of her wedding, her brothers use her dowry to pay for an extravagant funeral, then take all his possessions for themselves, and throw her out of the house. Unable to marry and shunned by the village, she eventually finds work and shelter with the crippled old woman, Po Po, another outcast who makes and sells her bitter dumplings each day at the market. When the Emperor's treasure fleet sails into the harbor, a ship's slave escapes, and asks the two women to hide him, and this, the three find is the start of a new beginning for all of them..... Ms Lee's dramatic text is filled with history as her story unfolds, slowly, towards its happy and satisfying conclusion, and is complemented by eloquent illustrations in soft and muted colors. Together, word and art transport the reader to a far-away place and time. With an author's note filled with historical details that enhance the story, Bitter Dumplings is an engaging tale, perfect for youngsters 7-10, or as a read-aloud for younger children.