Liddy (Asian) is excited about eating at the Dim Sum Palace tomorrow. She goes to bed wondering if it’s a real palace with an empress. “‘You’ll just have to wait and see!’ Mom replied. ‘Good night, my little dumpling.’” But Liddy can’t sleep. When a delicious smell wafts into her room, she follows it to the Dim Sum Palace, a fantastical place with enormous food. Liddy falls into a bowl of filling and ends up tucked into a dumpling being served to the Empress. “STOP! Don’t eat me!” she cries, cradled between chopsticks with the Empress’s open mouth looming. After Liddy loudly proclaims that she’s not a dumpling but a little girl, the charmed (and, until then, oblivious) Empress invites Liddy to share her meal rather than be part of it. The next morning Liddy wakes up in her bed, and the family goes to the real Dim Sum Palace, where the food “tasted better than in her wildest dreams.” This delightful homage to In the Night Kitchen is also inspired by the debut Taiwanese American author/illustrator’s memories of childhood dim sum feasts. The illustrations, rendered in graphite and digitally colored, are marvelously offbeat and full of dim sum-inspired shapes, including dumpling-esque humans sure to bring a smile. (Ages 4-7)