A FEAST WITH POPO

In this third picture book from Lee and Do’s Discover With Jade series, a young girl helps her grandmother prepare a feast for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Jade, a brown-haired youngster of Chinese heritage, has been working with her Gung Gung (grandfather) to grow lots of fruit and vegetables in his garden. She joins her Popo (grandmother) to help cook Cantonese chow mein for lunch. The food is delicious, and with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival coming up, Jade invites six young, diverse friends over to introduce them to this important celebration. She helps Popo make paper lanterns and several traditional dishes: winter melon soup, steamed fish, Chinese water spinach, chicken with ginger scallion sauce. The family purchases many other things from Chinatown (impressively presented in Do’s sideways double-page illustration). Jade’s pals enjoy the feast, and especially the mooncake desserts. Popo peels and carves pomelos (large, pear-shaped fruit) into lanterns and “helmets” before Jade and friends play beneath the full moon. Lee narrates the story from Jade’s perspective, effectively describing foods, ingredients, and activities with the enthusiasm of an excited young child. Do’s colorful images serve beautifully to convey the protagonist’s happy life and her close relationship with her grandma; they even wear matching shirts. The Mid-Autumn Festival emerges as a delightful, inclusive event.

A joyous celebration of cultural heritage and grandchild-grandparent relationships.