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, everything has its own beauty and purpose.

THE UGLY VEGETABLES springs forth with the bright and cheerful colors of blooming flowers and lumpy vegetables. Grace Lin's 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!

-Amazon description

Summary: a Chinese-American girl first not acknowledging the vegetables that are grown in her garden because they looked different from others who grew flower. She eventually learn to love her plants because they can make delicious soup that she loves and that everyone else wants to try.

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 various cultures.

This would be a nice book for primary or intermediate students. This book is about a Chinese mother and daughter who are creating a garden in their backyard. This garden contains many vegetables from China, and the young girl believes their garden is ugly compared to their neighbors who have many of the common flowers found in the United States in their garden. When harvest season comes, the little girl's mother makes a delicious soup filled with the vegetables from the garden, the entire neighborhood comes with flowers to exchange for a chance to get to try the soup, and the next year all their neighbors grow plants from China. This book was helpful because even though it calls the vegetables ugly, it shows the ways they are beautiful in how they make good food and bring people together. I think this book would be great to use in a lesson where I talk about different kinds of vegetables and foods in different countries and cultures.

Primary; Intermediate; Realistic Fiction; This is a sweet story of a young girl and her mother growing a garden of Chinese vegetables while their neighbors grew flowers. The girl was sad that her garden was ugly, but when they harvested the vegetables the girl's mother made soup and all the neighbors came bringing flowers in exchange for dinner. The next year, each house had a garden of flowers and Chinese vegetables. This would be a great read aloud book or an independent reading book! ( )