The Ugly Vegetables

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

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

This was a nice book because it took something that a little girl thought was Ugly and showed what a good thing it really was. The message of the book was kind of “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover”. The girl was upset that their garden wasn’t all pretty like the flower gardens of the neighbors. But when her mom picked the ugly vegetables she made soup out of it that was very good. It was also nice because the neighbors all brought her flowers to exchange for the soup because they could smell it cooking and it smelled so nice. I really liked that at the end of the book there was a recipe included for Ugly Vegetable soup and they had illustrations of the vegetables that were labeled in both Chinese and English. That really makes it show more a great multicultural book of inclusion. show less

I loved this book. I thought the illustrations were really nice. The illustrations of the ugly vegetables and the beautiful flowers were representations of what each family grew in their garden. I also liked the actions of the characters. The relationship between the young girl and her mother and the neighbors showed compassion and courtesy when they traded soup for flowers. The big idea of this story is that differences can be good and can bring people together.

I really enjoyed reading this book for multiple reasons. My first reason why I really liked reading this book was because it shows diversity and a different culture while being in America. I think that it was interesting to read because I did not see much of different cultures in my life.
One reason why I like this book is the plot. This little girl was growing up in America and planting with his mother who is also Asian. The little girl becomes very self-conscious that her vegetables are not the same as everyone else’s. In the end, her mother reminds her of her culture and how it is nice to be different.
The second reason I liked about this book was the illustrations. In the book, there were multiple times where I would not understand show more what was going on without the illustrations. For example, the illustrator made sure to show the plant signs in Chinese as well as the American signs that her neighbors had. This showed me how they looked to the little girl.
I believe that the overall big idea of this book was that nobody should be ashamed of their culture and that everyone is different and that is okay. The big idea really comes at the end of the book when little girl was excited for next spring so she could grow her Chinese vegetables with her mom. show less

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

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.