Product Description

Katie loves to show her grandma how to dress a Barbie...and GninGnin loves to show Katie how to make rice dumplings. More than anything, Katie longs to go with GninGnin to work, to crack a mountain of crabs alongside her at the crab cannery.

One day Katie gets her wish, but nothing is the way she'd imagined it. GninGnin swings a heavy mallet from sunup to sundown in a noisy, smelly room, earning barely enough for bus fare and a fish for dinner. That evening, when Katie eats the delicious meal that GninGnin has cooked -- "made with love as strong as ginger and dreams as thick as black-bean paste" -- she has a new understanding of her beloved grandma's hard life, and the sacrifices she's made to give her granddaughter a brighter future.

All the poignancy of Lenore Look's beautifully realized story -- based on her own childhood memories of her Chinese immigrant grandmother -- is captured in Caldecott Honor Medalist Stephen T. Johnson's sensitive, expressive pastels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1329068 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Inspired by Look's memories of her Chinese immigrant grandmother, this nostalgic book is liberally sprinkled with Taishanese, and the feelings conveyed are just as authentic as the language. When Katie accompanies GninGnin, her grandmother, to the crab cannery, she learns how long and hard GninGnin works as she cracks 200 pounds of crab meat a day (and earns "enough for bus fare and a fish for dinner... and someday, maybe enough to help you go to college"). Filled with poetic details (in GninGnin's kitchen, salted fish hang "like laundry above our heads"), the narrative will appeal to all those immigrant families that sacrifice to provide their children with a better life. The first-time author doesn't flinch from describing the harsh conditions in the chong, or cannery, but her story focuses on the strength and dreams of the women who work there. When Katie is tired from standing, GninGnin informs her, "There's only one place to sitAon the toilet upstairs." Katie asks, "How do you keep going?" and her grandmother says, "Don't you know that I'm a famous actress making a movie in a crab chong?... How can I give up when I'm the star?" Johnson's (Alphabet City) pastels, each framed with a plain, solid-colored border, favor close-up views, suggesting a series of intimate moments, even within the cannery. Sometimes sketchy, the illustrations imply a mood rather than tell a story, and in this way intensify the emotional content of the text. Ages 5-9. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-Inspired by the author's memories of her grandmother, this gentle story is carefully and precisely told. On one of her Saturday visits to GninGnin's Chinatown apartment, Katie asks to see the crab cannery where her grandmother toils during the week along with other immigrant women. In a first-person narrative filled with sensory details, the girl conveys the harsh realities of work in the steamy, smelly factory. A day of cracking crabs and shaking out their meat earns only "...enough for bus fare and a fish for dinner...and someday, maybe enough to help you go to college." GninGnin keeps fatigue and boredom at bay by laughingly pretending to be a movie star. Johnson's expressive pastel-and-watercolor illustrations are rendered in muted colors and set within wide, softly colored margins. Focused on revealing sensations and emotions, the artwork is very different from the precise architectural depictions in Johnson's Alphabet City (Viking, 1995). Though they seem casual and loose, the illustrations are carefully composed, with gesture and expression contributing to the psychological depth of the poetic text. This account of a girl's loving relationship with her grandmother is dramatized with details as specific as the Taishanese dialect that they speak. From her, Katie learns that good food and dreams of a better future are important enough to work hard for, but that love is a sustaining gift.
Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Lenore Look, like her heroine, loves to eat crab, especially when it's cooked the Chinese way with lots of ginger and daosee (black-bean paste), because it reminds s her of the Saturdays she spent in her grandmother's kitchen in Seattle. A graduate of Princeton University, Ms. Look lives in Randolph, New Jersey, with her husband and two daughters. This is her first picture book.

Customer Reviews

A story of intergenerational bonding
"Love As Strong As Ginger" is the story of the bond between an Chinese-American girl and her grandmother. Author Lenore Look includes a short "Author's Note" in which she reveals that the story was inspired by the life of her own immigrant grandmother. Look's well-written text is nicely complemented by the colorful illustrations of Stephen T. Johnson. Johnson's lovely artwork is realistic, yet with a slightly hazy quality--as if seen through the mists of memory.

Katie, the narrator of the story, recalls a day in which she accompanied her grandmother, called "GninGnin," to the crab processing plant where she works. Katie gains a greater appreciation for her grandmother's hard work, personal sacrifice, and dignity. A nice added touch is a glossary of Chinese terms used in the book.

This is a truly universal story about the bond between a grandparent and grandchild. But be warned: the graphic descriptions of crabs being cracked open for meat will surely nauseate some vegetarians, and upset those sympathetic to animal rights.

A beautiful story � captivates all ages
My children and I loved Love as Strong as Ginger. The beautiful metaphors beg to be read aloud, and over and over again. There's a simple message of love, and the strength of a love to inspire one to dream to be whatever one wants to be. The story is even more poignant because of the complexities of a harsh real world setting. It's written in the voice of the child for children maybe 4 to 8, but I was captivated and think that much older children will be as well. It wouldn't surprise me if it wins an award - it's already a winner in my family!

5-Star Read from the First Line to the Last
An unflinching view of the harsh conditions in a crab chong (cannery), but the Author never loses focus on the hope that sustains those who take those kinds of jobs. This book gives voice to countless workers in menial jobs in a way that can be heard and felt by children and those who must bring them up to be responsible adults. A five-star read from the first line to the last.