When Pacy, her two sisters, and their parentsgo to Taiwan to celebrate Grandma’s seventh birthday, the girls learn a lot about their heritageGrace Lin develops wonderful characters. I love this family and I love the extended family in Taiwan as well. This book explores wonderful themes of family, assimilation, and perseverance.My upper elementary students loved tasting some dumplings after we finished the book. I really liked this book! Pacy has a pretty unique perspective in the story, considering that she's the middle child and that she's not actually excited about going to Taiwan. In the book it's strongly implied nearer to when she first arrives in Taiwan that she's not happy and that the only thing she really thinks about in class is beating Audrey. Pacy has fairly realistic development considering that she doesn't go in HATING Taiwan, and she doesn't come out LOVING it. The story does tie back around to a comment that her dad made about what a "good trip" is like, this says that although Pacy didn't come out feeling like she'd reconnected with her "roots" (keep in mind that she wasn't born in Taiwan, not has she ever visited there before) but like she had had a good trip. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it!
