The Ugly Dumpling

"A whimsical story about being different, and the power of love."—Wendy Orr, author of Nim's Island and The Princess and Her Panther

It’s not easy being the ugliest dumpling in a dim sum restaurant. Uneaten and ignored, the ugly dumpling is down in the dumps. But when an encouraging cockroach sees the dumpling’s inner beauty, this unlikely duo embarks on an eye-opening adventure, leading the ugly dumpling to discover its true identity and realize that being different is beautiful after all.

A modern fairytale retelling with a timeless moral: There’s a little ugly dumpling in all of us.

Stephanie Campisi is an Australian-born, Portland-based author and dumpling aficionado. She has combined her passion for food and love of wordplay into her debut picture book, The Ugly Dumpling.

Shahar Kober is an award-winning illustrator of over thirty children's books. He lives in a small town in northern Israel with his wife, two boys, a dog, and a cat. Shahar graduated with a degree in illustration from the College of Design in 2005. Currently, he is a freelance illustrator and teaches illustration for animation at The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design in Israel. His work has been published in the USA, the UK, France, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, and Israel. In addition to The Ugly Dumpling, Shahar has also illustrated Chicken in Space (HarperCollins 2016) and The Cricket and the Ant (Lerner Publishing 2016).