The Ugly Vegetables

In this charming story about celebrating differences a Chinese-American girl wishes for a garden of bright flowers instead of one full of bumpy, ugly, vegetables.

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, show more everything has its own beauty and purpose. show less

The Ugly Vegetables is a fun story that has a message to its audience. I enjoyed the illustrations of the community and the garden. When reading the text, I visualize a community that is centered around a garden. The illustrations and visual images presented to the reader are very similar to that of which I visualized. I feel that this story is a good read that not only introduces “ugly” vegetables but explains how everyone and everything can have a spot on a dining because because everything has redeeming qualities even if the appearance may not be desired. I loved the multicultural and dual language components of the text. I appreciated how author Grace Lin, included chinese pronunciations for the vegetables and included the show more recipe for how to make ugly vegetable soup. show less

This is a charming story about a little girl and her mother starting a garden along with the rest of their neighbors in their community. The neighbors are growing flowers and their gardens are pretty while the little girl and her mother's garden was ugly and very unusual. The little girl is a little sad they have no flowers in their garden like their neighbors, but her mother tells her to just wait. At the end, the mother makes a delicious bowl of soup that all the neighbors are captivated. The neighbors ask to do an exchange for the soup by giving flowers. It's a lovely dinner with the whole community. Next year, everyone has flowers and Chinese vegetables in their garden. This book has some Chinese words in it, but their is a guide in show more the back of the book for pronouncing them. This is great for primary readers. show less

I thought this story sent a good message to children that everything has its own beauty in it's own unique way. It also shows children what can be accomplished when a community gets together. The story will also open children's eyes about other cultures and traditions.

I really liked the book “The Ugly Vegetable” by Grace Lin. I enjoyed the child like illustrations that showed the different neighbor’s flower gardens, especially as they contrasted the vegetable garden of the narrator’s mother. The illustrations of the smells of the mother’s soup spreading across the neighborhood do a great job of emphasizing how the mother’s message of patience to her daughter pays off in the end. I liked that the daughter describes her disgust at her mother's garden as it compares to her neighbor’s, not unlike the resentment a young child may feel towards the differences of their own culture. The author does a great job of emphasizing the ways that each culture is unique and special through the eyes of a show more child coming to this realization on her own. show less

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is about a girl who asks questions about why they are doing things differently in their garden than their neighbors. Her mom explains to her that they are planting vegetables from China. The girl is sad because she wants her garden to be blooming with colorful flowers, but when she smells the food being made inside, she realized how happy she was with the soup made from their vegetables. Soon, all the neighbors were over with flowers in exchange for soup and the next year, the neighbors planted Chinese vegetables next to their flowers and the girl planted flowers next to her Chinese vegetables. I think this would be a good book for primary students and would be a good tool to use before diving into show more various cultures. show less

The Ugly Vegetables is a great loving story of a young Chinese girl and her mother planting vegetables in their garden. It follows a coming of age story because as the girl and the mother grow and plant the vegetables, she starts to question things about her lifestyle versus their neighbors lives. She doesn't think their garden looks beautiful because of what they grow but at harvest time, everyone loves theirs the best because of how it tastes. She learns to love and accept herself and the people around her and to not be ashamed of where her family. It's a great way to introduce the idea of self love and self acceptance to the classroom and to bring diversity.