The Story of Noodles

This is the second of the Boulder-based author's planned trilogy on the origins of three Chinese inventions: chopsticks, noodles, and (I believe) paper. The stories all feature the Kang brothers, three boisterous young boys who live in ancient China and have a penchant for accidentally coming up with new technologies. In this story, the brothers manage to make a mess of the dumpling dough their mother has left them to shape. The dough ends up torn into strips, but they discover that the strips make a tasty dish when they are cooked. This mian tiao (flour strips) dish ends up winning the annual cooking contest.Children will enjoy the description of the different ways of eating noodles: rolled on the chopsticks is "eating a drumstick"; slurping the noodle is "sucking a worm"; and biting the noodles is "cutting the grass." Young readers will also undoubtedly enjoy the author's note that people in China customarily make big slurping noises while eating noodles.The illustrations-papercuts which have bold lines and colors reminiscent of stained glass-complement the boisterous, happy tone of the book. As an added bonus, Compestine includes a recipe for "Long-Life Noodles" and a note about the history and customs of noodles.