Reviews

The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale by Ying Chang Compestine

lsparrow's review

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3.0

A Lunar New Year version of the gingerbreadman/robin hood.

hnbb's review

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4.0

I liked the Robin Hood message of this book. However, I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for the Li family.

mallen8509's review

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4.0

The Zhang family finds themselves in possession of a rusty old wok that turns out to be magical!

To give you some background information, the wok was invented in China during the Han Dynasty. Today, it is still the most used cooking utensil.

Another cool fact to know is that a wok is a symbol of sharing, since it can cook food for multiple families.

hiimkayte's review

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4.0

A wok acts as Robin Hood, taking from the mean rich people, and giving to the poor. Minus 1 star because they make fun of the rich kid because he’s chubby. I don’t need to teach my child fat shaming.

daniellesalwaysreading's review

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4.0

This book is cute; I like the story and the pictures. There was a strange message of accepting stolen goods and prospering from other people's problems. But the rich people had avarice so its OK? I would have liked it slightly better if the rich people had seen the error of their ways and decided to share with everyone or become honest or something like that.

msgabbythelibrarian's review

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4.0

Did you know that woks are symbolize sharing in Chinese tradition? I did not!

This book is a fun tale of a magical wok who helps a poor family--a family who wants to share with their neighbors. This wok says rhymes and the listener can't help but do what it says. Children will enjoy this tale I think!

snowelf's review

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3.0

We enjoyed this story, definitely familiar to one of those old fairy tales. My is fascinated by the Chinese New Year traditions, and this added extra interest to the story for him. The pictures are fun. We'd rate this 3 1/2 stars if we could because we actually liked it quite a bit.

libraryrobin's review

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3.0

Great illustrations accompany this reinterpretation of a traditional Danish folktale.

backonthealex's review

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3.0

This starts off like a bit of a Jack and the Beanstalk story, except there's not giant, just a rusty wok with no handles. It's almost New Year and Ming is given some eggs to trade for a bag of rice for his family's celebration. Even though Ming's father works, the family is poor because Mr. Li, the richest man in Beijing, doesn't pay his workers enough. On his way to the market, Ming meets a man who sells him a rusty wok after Ming hears it singing "Boy, Boy, trade for me/I am more than what you see." His parents are understandably upset when they see what Ming has done, but when the wok begins to sing again, then runs away, they are more than pleasantly surprised when it returns. Young readers will be pleased and surprised as well, when they see what this wok does. We read this every year now, and love the story as much as Sebastia Serra's colorful, lively illustrations.

lupines's review

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4.0

I'm immersed in the artwork details portraying chinese traditional culture.