Love As Strong As Ginger

This poignant chapter book tells the story of Katie, who idolizes her Chinese immigrant grandmother, GninGnin. Katie dreams of working alongside her at the crab cannery, imagining it as an exciting adventure. When she finally gets her wish, Katie confronts the harsh reality of GninGnin's physically demanding and low-paying labor. Through this experience, Katie gains a profound understanding of her grandmother's resilience, the sacrifices she makes, and the deep, enduring love that fuels her efforts to provide a better future for her family. The story, based on the author's own memories, is beautifully illustrated with sensitive pastels.

Katie loves to show her grandma how to dress a Barbie...and GninGnin loves to show Katie how to make rice dumplings. More than anything, Katie longs to go with GninGnin to work, to crack a mountain of crabs alongside her at the crab cannery. One day Katie gets her wish, but nothing is the way she'd imagined it. GninGnin swings a heavy mallet from sunup to sundown in a noisy, smelly room, earning barely enough for bus fare and a fish for dinner. That evening, when Katie eats the delicious meal that GninGnin has cooked -- "made with love as strong as ginger and dreams as thick as black-bean paste" -- she has a new understanding of her beloved grandma's hard life, and the sacrifices she's made to give her granddaughter a brighter future. All the poignancy of Lenore Look's beautifully realized story -- based on her own childhood memories of her Chinese immigrant grandmother -- is captured in Caldecott Honor Medalist Stephen T. Johnson's sensitive, expressive pastels.