Publisher's Weekly Review
In this tasty story of tenacity and ingenuity, everyone in the family can make perfect bao except for Amy. Hers are "too empty or too fat. They have holes them. They leak." Amy is good at many other things, Zhang assures readers, and bao making can't be too far beyond her grasp--especially since her parents and grandmother are happy to dedicate a day to helping. But perfection continues to elude the increasingly frazzled child, until she figures out how to hack the process by using smaller dough circles ("Amy-size"), which yield flawless bao that "are soft and fluffy and so, so delicious." Chua's bright-eyed protagonist is winning from the start, and the book's jaunty pacing, sparkly palette, and visual directness are reminiscent of a classic animated cartoon short. A bao recipe concludes, as does a revelation that "not-so-perfect bao" taste just as a good as their tidy counterparts. Ages 4--8. (Oct.)
Kirkus Review
A little girl wants to make perfect bao, just like the ones her mom, dad, and grandma make.Making bao is a multigenerational affair in the Wu family. Amy's mom, dad, and grandma make perfect bao that come out "soft and fluffy, and so, so delicious." Amy "could eat them all day." However, the bao that Amy makes are always too small or too big, and sometimes they "fall apart before they reach her mouth." One day, Amy is determined "to make the world's most perfect bao." (The typeface is determined too.) First, Amy's dad mixes flour, water, and yeast to make dough for the bread (yay for dads in the kitchen!). Then "Amy's mom seasons meat for the filling." Finally, everyone gathers around the table to work. Everyone makes perfect baoeveryone except Amy. Amy is about to give up when she thinks of the perfect "Amy-size" plan and gets to work! Zhang's buoyant, bubbly text is complemented by Chua's charming, animated characters, who include an equally expressive kitty as sidekick. In one scene, Amy slumps on the floor with flour-covered face and clothes, cradling a misshapen bao. Her forlorn face exemplifies despair, while kitty mirrors her. Step-by-step illustrations, combined with the author's family recipe, provide readers with a guide to making bao. The Wus all appear to be East Asian.An extra-tasty book for bao lovers everywhere. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Everyone in the family can make perfect bao except for little Amy. When she tries, hers are always too small or too big, or they have too much filling or not enough. But today is the day she will succeed in making the perfect bao! This is an incredibly straightforward and simple, step-by-step picture book that lays out the full-day procedure of how to create, fill, pinch, and steam buns from the Chinese food tradition. If you stretch for it, you can locate a message of resilience and ingenuity and create a larger conversation, but either way, it's a factual representation of a Chinese family's cooking and bonding experience that will increase the diversity of any collection. Although she has an established career in YA and middle-grade literature, this is Zhang's first picture book, and Chua's illustrations are brightly colored and highly expressive. The back matter even includes Amy's family's recipe for bao dough and filling and cooking instructions for a household or classroom extension activity for tiny hands.--Becca Worthington Copyright 2010 Booklist
