Book Review: The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale

Posted on January 11, 2012 Updated on February 2, 2012

The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale

 Written by Ying Chang Compestine 

Illustrated by Sebastia Serra 

Published: 2011 by Dutton Children’s Books, 32 pages 

Ages: 6 – 8

Topics: Chinese New Year, generosity, humorous

 

Ming Zhang’s family is poor and cannot afford an extravagant feast for their Chinese New Year. However, Ming’s mother states that they’ll make fried rice to share. Ming is given instructions to get food from the market, but instead he’s tricked to buy a singing wok: “Boy, boy trade for me, I am more than what you see!” Of course, his mother is upset that he returned with no food and an old wok when they have no food to cook with. The wok runs away to the rich Li family who Papa works for. The wok takes all their delicious food and skips back to the Zhang household. The wok dashes away again to the Li house and fills up with the spoiled son’s New Years toys. The Li family discover the wok’s mischief , but the wok states: “I dare you there to try to catch me!” Meanwhile, the Zhang family was generous and held a wonderful New Year’s celebration with dragons, drums, and fireworks. It had the combination of Jack and the Beanstalk buying the magic beans and the Gingerbread Man who couldn’t be caught. The back of the book provides Chinese New Year information and a fried rice recipe.