The Ugly Dumpling

Stephanie Campisi’s book The Ugly Dumpling is a story about a dumpling who thinks he is ugly. It is a bit like the story of the ugly duckling, but very different. The dumpling meets a cockroach in the restaurant where he lives, who tells him he is not ugly. They go on an adventure around their world and become good friends who are nice to each other. The pictures in the book were interesting; some pages had words in the pictures. The world of the dumpling was inside a restaurant and all the places looked like big cities.

“It was in a lonely only category of one.”

I like that the cockroach was not ugly to look at, it had a friendly face. The pictures of the food were silly too. The story was weird, and I didn’t understand why he thought he was ugly when no one told him he was. I think he should have been called the lonely dumpling. Cockroaches are gross and I wouldn’t like one in my food, like the buns and the people at the end of the story. I did not like the e-book version, I think this book is better to hold and turn pages. It was odd to see all pages stacked on top, and not one at a time. I’m not sure if preschoolers would like this story, except for the pictures, and my mom thinks it is better for first graders to third graders.

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