Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin

In the hopes of recognizing some Asian and Asian-American picture books that don’t, for a change, contain horrible stereotypes, Kate and I wanted to look at a good book. Trouble is, we have a 20-year rule when it comes to books we consider. That means no Bee-Bim Bop and no Henry and the Kite Dragon. They’re too recent! I eschewed The Name Jar since it was a little too close to the content of last week’s Chrysanthemum. But why not do the very first Grace Lin picture book? So I snagged the ten-year anniversary edition. I compare aspects of this to The Little Red Hen (eat yer posies, neighbors!) and speculate as to whether or not Grace Lin might want to become a vegetable seed supplier if this whole writing-award-winning-children’s-books gig doesn’t work out.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Here’s the book I presented to Kate at the top of the episode, for a happy Passover. Thanks for passing it on, Alan!

Not for the kiddos, here is a link to Amy Schumer’s carrot. It is . . . far worse than I imagined.

Here is where you can go to find the obscure stories that didn’t make it into Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature. Just keep scrolling down and they will eventually reveal themselves to you.

We really appreciate this note at the beginning of this book. No one has yet created a standardized method of defining terms in books for children. By including this note at the start, Lin tells child readers not only that it’s okay to try and sound out rules but also that it’s important to see the correct pronunciation, and where to find it.

Meet Kate’s “person”. Doesn’t he look SO comfortable? It’s 80 degrees outside but he’s wearing a sweater and long pants and we appreciate his dedication to comfort over style.

Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit . . .

We’re not sure but we’re 95% convinced that this man is asleep standing up. Like a horsey.

Betsy Recommends:

• The Pop Culture Happy Hour episodes on the Muppets
• The podcast Anglophilia

Kate Recommends:

• Our dad’s poem A Homily in the Church of Baseball

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate