Mom! I'm Hungry!: Bee-Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park

Almost time for supper. Rush to the store!

Mom buys the groceries--"More, Mom, more!"

"Hurry, Mom, hurry! Gotta hop, hop, hop!"

It's late afternoon and at least one little tummy is grumbling. But Mom has a favorite stand-by she knows is quick and satisfying--bee-bim bop, which means "rice and everything stirred together."

Back at home mother and daughter set to work like a well-oiled wok. The little girl measures out a pot of water for the rice and beats the eggs bubbly and fluffy for the egg pancakes, and then tosses her mom just the right cooking tool:

"Mom, catch the spatula! Flip the eggs high!"

"Hungry, hungry, hungry!"

Rice simmers and Mama chop, chop, chops, and into the stir-fry go green onions, spinach, carrots, chicken, and sprouts to sizzle up together while the daughter sets the table with spoons, chopsticks, and her favorite plates and bowls striped in blue. Mama takes up the dinner, arranging the thinly sliced egg strips, the stir-fried meat and veggies, and the rice artfully in their own serving bowls.

"Hurry, family, hurry! Dinner's on the table.

Rice goes in the middle.

Egg goes on top.

Mix it. Mix, mix, mix!

It's bee-bim bop!"

Is everybody hungry now? Who could resist Mama's best quick supper, and Linda Sue Park's delicious Bee-Bim Bop! (Clarion) certainly sets the table with a place for all of us. With warm and appealing illustrations by HuBaek Lee, Newbery-winning author Linda Sue Park takes us into a comfy Korean-American kitchen for a cooking lesson that will have almost everyone crying "Bee-Bim Bop!" too! A full recipe is appended in case readers want to try out this homey specialty themselves. Break out the chopsticks and chow down!

Linda Sue Park is the versatile author of noted historical fiction works, including A Single Shard, and The Kite Fighters, set in medieval Korea, When My Name Was Keoko, her novel of Japanese-occupied Korea, Keeping Score, a story of the post-war Brooklyn Dodgers, and her recent installment in the popular adventure series, The 39 Clues, Book 9: Storm Warning.