Find Mom's Wok

K-Gr 2—Distracted by a Mid-Autumn Festival dragon, little Shao Ming loses her family wok but encounters several kind adults generous with time and food. Finally reaching her uncle's house, she learns that the wok had been found hours earlier. The setting is an unspecified China: Szechuan, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Beijing cuisines are described. There are no recipes. Astoundingly, moon cakes—a quintessential component of the Mid-Autumn Festival and depicted on the book's cover—are never mentioned. The illustrations show an idealized early modern village, without cars but with colorful details: lanterns, tiled roofs, tilted eaves, etc. Many characters have exaggerated mouths, but their traditional dress reflects varied Chinese ethnicities, and the dragons, tiny dog, and backgrounds are appealing. Verb tenses are inconsistent, some punctuation and expressions need correction, and "Choon Jahr" for Lunar New Year will be unrecognizable to non-Koreans.