Watercress, Andrea Wang
Watercress, Andrea Wang
List: $3.99 | Sale: $2.80
Club: $1.99

Watercress

Author: Andrea Wang

Narrator: Sunny Lu

Unabridged: 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Weston Woods

Published: 04/01/2022


Synopsis

A story about the power of sharing memories—including the painful ones—and the way our heritage stays with and shapes us, even when we don’t see it.While driving through Ohio in an old Pontiac, a young girl's Chinese immigrant parents spot watercress growing wild in a ditch by the side of the road. They stop the car, grabbing rusty scissors and an old paper bag, and the whole family wades into the mud to gather as much as they can. At first, she's embarrassed. Why can't her family just get food from the grocery store, like everyone else? But when her mother shares a bittersweet story of her family history in China, the girl learns to appreciate the fresh food they foraged—and the memories left behind in pursuit of a new life.Together, they make a new memory of watercress.Author Andrea Wang calls this moving, autobiographical story “both an apology and a love letter to my parents.” It’s a bittersweet, delicate look at how sharing the difficult parts of our histories can create powerful new moments of family history, and help connect us to our roots.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Darla

This book is racking up the awards this week: Caldecott 2022 Winner, Asian/American Award for Literature in the picture book category, and a Newbery 2022 Honor award. I had just checked a copy out of my library, so I opened it up today to see what it was all about. Definitely one I would have picked......more

Goodreads review by Dave

With the suspension of the Goodreads Choice 2021 Picture Book category, I was of mixed feelings; first, my family yearly rates all the nominees, but we had in recent years been less impressed with the nominees (which Rod Brown found were often published by Amazon subsidiaries). So I consulted a coup......more

Goodreads review by donna

"I am ashamed of being ashamed of my family" I can recall growing up, and hating going to KMart with my parents. I was so scared someone would see us "bargain shopping" and assume we were poor. We were far from hardship, enjoying a sparse but comfortable middle class American life. There were kids in......more

Goodreads review by Trish

That was a quite wonderful little story about two Chinese-American kids being on the road with their parents when they see watercress by the side of the road. They stop, get out and collect the watercress. The girl isn't too happy because the considers it weird, but it actually has to do with her pa......more