Long ago, a hungry ghost find a young boy and plans to eat him! The boys, who does not want to become a midnight snack, cleverly tricks the ghost into making a Boy Dumpling recipe.

I really enjoyed the book, "Boy Dumplings" by Ying Chang Compestine. There were three main reasons that I liked this book. First, the plot of the book was very engaging. The entire time that the ghost character is following the boy's directions for boy dumplings, the child is having him run frivolous errands such as giving him a bath or messaging his feet. Another reason that this book was enjoyable was the composition. Part of the book is written as a recipe instead of the boy just telling the ghost the steps. It was a very creative way to incorporate the sequence of events that happened later in the book. I also liked how exaggerated the recipe for the dumplings were. Some of the ingredients included "1 chubby boy, 10 pounds of stinky garlic, 50 pounds of rotten onions, and 40 pounds of wormy cabbage." Finally, the writing along with the illustrations were very funny. The faces of the characters were very exaggerated when expressing an emotion, especially the boy's face. My favorite picture was when the boy yelled at the ghost, "What do you want?" after he was woken from his nap. The boy was illustrated in his underwear, and has his very round stomach was displayed with his face scrunched up; except for his mouth, which was opened wide enough to take up half of his face. On the other page the ghost looked hungry and exasperated. The combination of pictures made me laugh out loud. The book also has a recipe for "Boy Free Dumplings" at the end, which I thought was very creative. The overall message of the book is to retell generations a story based off of traditional Chinese lore. ( )

Though SLJ correctly notes a bit of verbosity, overall, Ching Compestine's tale is good for a laugh and the usual title-character-outwits-villain scenario that readers appreciate. Gouache and watercolor illustrations enhance the story with unusual lighting. ( )