Ellie's Quest for Noodles and Dumplings

Book excerpt: Ellie, a food-loving little girl of Asian and Black decent, goes on a quest in her multiculturally diverse neighborhood for dumplings to eat with her mother's homemade noodles. She discovers where food comes from and how it is grown and obtained as she encounters her neighbors along the way. Ellie experiences their kindness and food gifts, and she learns to make dumplings for the first time with her mother.This is a story about a child's love of food and how culture is being passed on to her by the food prepared in her family's kitchen. It is also a story about where food comes from, and how it is a universal language of all people, otherwise known as the human race; and that food is both a fundamental need and a pleasure for all human kind. Thusly, it brings people together. It acts as a binder and can be the best diplomat of all. Implicitly interwoven is a story about being bicultural and inhabiting the influences of many cultures simply by being raised and interacting daily with a multicultural, diverse community.