Fiction - Food, Fiction - Asian People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - Family Life, Fiction - U. S. People, Places & Cultures

Fortune Cookie Fortunes

Name: Fortune Cookie Fortunes
Author: Grace Lin
ISBN: 9780440421924

by Grace Lin

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Overview

Crack, crack, crack! The cookies snap open and the family’s fortunes are revealed. Mei Mei wants to know how hers will come true. Jie Jie scoffs—they never come true. But Pacy isn’t so sure. As she waits and watches, she notices magical things happening in her family. Could the fortunes really be right? And what about Pacy’s fortune: “You will see the world in a new way”? Well, yes, it’s true! Pacy has been seeing the world through fortune cookies!

This exhuberantly illustrated story about every kid’s favorite part of a Chinese meal also includes a brief history of the fortune cookie.

What will your fortune be? Crack! Open up a cookie and find out.

After a young Chinese American girl opens fortune cookies with her family, she notices that the fortunes seem to come true. Includes brief notes on the history of the fortune cookie.

Synopsis

This exhuberantly illustrated story about every kid’s favorite part of a Chinese meal also includes a brief history of the fortune cookie.

What will your fortune be? Crack! Open up a cookie and find out.

Publishers Weekly

Grace Lin's illustrations also fill the pages of Fortune Cookie Fortunes (along with her text), a follow-up to Dim Sum for Everyone! Here Pacy and her family examine their fortune cookies after their meal, and the girl observes that each of their fortunes comes true in a different way (e.g., a garden full of pumpkins and peapods that dwarf Ma-Ma confirm "Attention and care will make great things happen"). Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Grace Lin

Grace Lin is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. She is the author and illustrator of eight picture books, and the illustrator of over nine more. She grew up in upstate New York and now lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Robert.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Children's Literature

Well-written children's books are a pleasure to read, but there are times when the stories would be fine without the pictures and vise versa. Grace Lin's book, however, is one of those rare picture books in which the text and illustrations really depend on each other—and with charming results. The story starts with an experience familiar to many families; opening the fortune cookies at the end of a meal at a Chinese restaurant. The main character, an anonymous young Chinese girl, believes that all the fortunes in the cookies will come true. The reader follows each member of her family to see how their fortunes are fulfilled. The story is fun to read aloud, but without the illustrations the audience would not be able to see the fortunes come about to such spectacular effect. The illustrations are consistently vibrant and playful. By the end, young children will probably all agree that fortune cookies truly are prophetic. 2004, Alfred A Knopf, Ages 4 to 6.
—Rihoko Ueno

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-While eating at a Chinese restaurant, a young narrator exclaims, "The best part- is the fortune cookies. Crack! Crack! Crack!" Hers says, "You see the world in a different way." That is indeed true as she views the world in terms of fortune-cookie messages and sees them as coming true. For example, Ma-Ma's garden is bursting with growth ("Attention and care will make great things happen"). Jie-Jie's room is filled with magnificent origami animals ("Your imagination will create many friends"). A yellow car laden with luggage is trailed by a caption that reads, "Someone will visit you soon." Lin's trademark patterns grace not only clothing, but also sky and walls, and the papers with the typed fortunes are decorated with smiley faces. The child's upbeat view of the world around her is charming. A page of back matter gives the history of fortune cookies. Pair this book with Ina R. Friedman's How My Parents Learned to Eat (Houghton, 1984) and Lin's Dim Sum for Everyone (Knopf, 2001) for a delicious program on Asian food. The final endpaper shows an opened cookie with the fortune, "You have just read a good book." Children will agree.-Bina Williams, Bridgeport Public Library, CT Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The middle daughter of three girls in a Chinese-American family is the narrator of this exploration of the paper fortunes found in those irresistible cookies, leading to a wider look at good luck and good fortune in general. After dining in a Chinese restaurant, each member of the family receives a different fortune, and the first-person narration explains how each fortune is true in some way. The paper fortune slips (with a tiny smiley face on each) are incorporated into each illustration, with each different attribute or talent creatively illustrated in bright colors, busy patterns, and a somewhat flattened perspective that lends a cheerful simplicity to the art. The narrator's fortune indicates that she sees the world in a different way, illustrated by a whole page of fortune cookie papers attached like labels to an outdoor scene. An author's note provides information about the fortune cookie's history and its roots in both Chinese and Japanese culture. (Picture book. 4-7)