Birthday girl Maia, clad in her purple bunny pajamas, runs down to greet her mother. Her excitement grows when she learns that Umma is cooking something special: miyeok guk, or birthday soup. The dialogue-heavy narrative expounds on the dish\u2019s origins. Packed with nutrients, this seaweed soup is typically served to new mothers; Korean people traditionally eat the dish on their birthdays to honor their mothers. As Maia\u2019s father, grandmother, and older brother chime in with their own memories and reactions, everyone pitches in to help cook. Kim\u2019s deft use of bright blended colors and textures creates joyful scenes of Maia preparing the ingredients with her family. Portrayed with oversize round heads, they cut endearing figures in the cartoonish art. After reveling in the legacy and flavors of the soup, Maia decides to serve it to her friends at her party. Several aspects of Maia\u2019s Korean heritage are represented: Her grandmother wears a hanbok, her relatives bring silk envelopes containing birthday money, and japchae and kimchi are served alongside pizza and tacos\u2014and, of course, miyeok guk. Maia and her parents smile as her friends appreciate the soup\u2014the perfect party! Maia\u2019s friends are racially diverse. The book wraps up with two recipes for miyeok guk, including one from the author\u2019s husband, restaurateur and TV personality David Chang.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Birthday girl Maia, clad in her purple bunny pajamas, runs down to greet her mother. Her excitement grows when she learns that Umma is cooking something special: miyeok guk, or birthday soup. The dialogue-heavy narrative expounds on the dish\u2019s origins. Packed with nutrients, this seaweed soup is typically served to new mothers; Korean people traditionally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}