Product Description

ItÂ’s easy to appreciate a garden exploding with colorful flowers and fragrances, but what do you do with a patch of ugly vegetables? Author/illustrator Grace Lin recalls such a garden in this charming and eloquent story.

The neighbors’ gardens look so much prettier and so much more inviting to the young gardener than the garden of “black-purple-green vines, fuzzy wrinkled leaves, prickly stems, and a few little yellow flowers” that she and her mother grow. Nevertheless, mother assures her that “these are better than flowers.” Come harvest time, everyone agrees as those ugly Chinese vegetables become the tastiest, most aromatic soup they have ever known. As the neighborhood comes together to share flowers and ugly vegetable soup, the young gardener learns that regardless of appearances, everything has its own beauty and purpose.

The Ugly Vegetables springs forth with the bright and cheerful colors of blooming flowers and bumpy, ugly vegetables. Grace LinÂ’s colorful, playful illustrations pour forth with abundant treasures. Complete with a guide to the Chinese pronunciation of the vegetables and the recipe for ugly vegetable soup! Try it . . . youÂ’ll love it, too!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208353 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780881063363
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In this debut children's book, a girl and her mother chart their own course in spring plantingAand reap the benefits. The girl narrator is clearly disappointed when, unlike her neighbors who prepare flower gardens, she and her mother plant Chinese vegetables that, her mother insists, are "better than flowers." While the other backyards yield colorful blooms, her garden becomes crowded with "ugly vegetables," lumpy, bumpy and "icky yellow." But when the girl's mother uses them to make a soup, its "magical aroma" attracts neighbors to their doorAcarrying bouquets of flowers from their gardens. Though the pacing of the text is a bit uneven, the mother's confidence in the garden's success and Lin's message of community togetherness buoy up the narrative. A charming, childlike quality infuses the artwork; boldly hued gouache pictures feature skies and lawns as patterned as the girl's kitchen wallpaper and curtains. For ambitious young gardeners and would-be chefs, an illustrated glossary of the vegetables and their Chinese characters along with a soup recipe conclude the volume. Ages 3-8. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3 A Chinese-American girl and her mother grow a vegetable garden in a neighborhood where everyone else grows flowers. The girl thinks their plants are ugly compared to flowers, but soon learns that vegetables can make a very delicious soup one that the whole neighborhood wants to try. Soon everyone is growing Chinese vegetables as well as flowers. A recipe for "Ugly Vegetable Soup" is included. Lin's brightly colored gouache illustrations perfectly match her story, creating a patchwork-quilt effect as the neighbors' backyards all converge. Families of all kinds engage in all sorts of activities while children play happily together. Each double-page spread is a different color with a different pattern scattered lightly across it, serving as a frame for the illustrations and as background for the text. A lovely, well-formatted book with an enjoyable multicultural story. Judith Constantinides, East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
While the neighbors' gardens burgeon with bloom, a troubled child sees nothing but wrinkled leaves and dark vines growing in hers. She doubts her mother's claim that what she is growing is actually better than flowers--until the harvested sheau hwang gua, torng hau, and other Chinese vegetables have been chopped into the soup pot, and neighbors, drawn by the delicious smell, appear at the door with armloads of flowers and big appetites. Filling spaces with curlicues and dabs of color, Lin places her characters in a tidy suburban setting replete with happy families playing on unfenced, wildflower-dotted lawns. Closing with a recipe and glossary, this brief consciousness raiser makes a mouth watering companion for Rosemary Wells' Yoko (1998) or books like Nora Dooley's multicultural standby, Everybody Cooks Rice (1991). John Peters

Customer Reviews

a great story and even greater illustrations
this book stands apart from so many of the thoughtless children's books being released by the truckload over the past few years. grace lin's pictures and words blend effortlessly together to create a simple, yet sphisticated, deeply rooted and inteligent childrens book for all ages. I can't wait to see more of grace's books, and try her recipe. yum! i highly recomend this book.

Should Be in Every Library!
This was a wonderful story that my husband and children just loved. We learned about some new vegetables in the process. As a kid I wasn't fond of bitter melon, but I'm willing to give it a second try after reading the book! My 5 and 6 year old boys are clamoring for us to go out, buy some ugly vegetables, and make the soup! This book appeals to every member of the family and the illustrations are beautiful.

a brilliant, vibrant book
Honestly, one of the best chidren's picture books out there now. The beautiful, colorful illustrations will appeal to both adults and children alike. The story of acceptance and cultural exchange is timeless and enduring. Really, a wonderful wonderful book.