Morning sun in Wuhan

Drawing on her own experiences growing up in Wuhan, China, Compestine delivers a unique and poignant tale about the early days in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. The story follows 13-year-old Mei, whose mother has passed away and whose father is a doctor enveloped in an overcrowded hospital. Isolated and grieving, Mei finds solace in playing a cooking video game and in actual cooking. As the health crisis continues to worsen around her, Mei searches for ways to help her community. She and other kids band together to cook in an emergency kitchen and to deliver food and supplies to their neighbors. In addition to eliciting hope and compassion, Compestine's creative and genuine storytelling offers up numerous windows into Chinese culture. Each chapter begins with a proverb, and many chapters end with a mouthwatering, easy-to-follow recipe accompanied by a charming illustration. Compestine, a cooking--TV-show host and chef, also includes a cooking glossary and information on basic cutting techniques. An author's statement provides compelling insight into this quick yet heartwarming story.

A pandemic story told through the eyes of a girl growing up in Wuhan, China, author Compestine's own hometown. Grieving her mother's death and with Father busy working as a physician at a major hospital, 13-year-old Mei often finds herself home alone. She fills the solitude with her favorite pastime: cooking. When she isn't busy in her apartment kitchen, she jumps into her virtual one in the computer game Chop Chop. There, she and her teammates' key strokes and culinary knowledge fend off zombie invaders by making sure the soldiers are well fed to fight. Mei's virtual escape soon becomes all too real, though it is not zombies that threaten but the new airborne viral disease the world will come to know as Covid-19. As the city enters lockdown and neighbors fall ill, Mei joins forces with her gamer friends to prepare meals and coordinate food deliveries to their neighborhoods. All the while, Mei's own anxieties simmer on the back burner: Is her father safe working at the hospital? Does her Aunty hate her for choosing to stay with Father? Readers who have lived through the pandemic over the last few years will surely identify with Mei's worries and hopes for a brighter post-pandemic future. The simple story is a bridge builder across geography and culture, universal in its themes of family and community through the global pandemic, encouraging empathy, introspection, and optimism. Endearing, hopeful, and sure to make your mouth water. (recipes, cooking glossary, information on cutting techniques, author's note) (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.