Common Sense Media Review
By Regan McMahon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Beautiful art portrays a family unearthing past hardship.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 5+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
A family pulls over to the side of the road to pick wild growing WATERCRESS. The young daughter doesn't know why her parents would make her and her brother pick this free but grubby produce that looks like weeds. When it's then served at their dinner table, she doesn't want to eat the peppery greens. "I only want vegetables from the grocery store," she says. Finally her mother brings out a photo or her mother, uncle, and their parents back in China, before they moved to the United States, and talks about the time when her family didn't have enough to eat, and were grateful to be able to gather have watercress.
Is It Any Good?
This moving, beautifully illustrated story of family hardship and history shows the importance of knowing your roots, the power of memory, and the tendency to keep painful memories hidden. Many kids don't know about the tough times their parents or ancestors experienced, and as Watercress shows, they can find meaning and empathy in those stories. "During the great famine, we ate anything we could find, but it was still not enough."
Famine is not a typical topic for a kids' picture book, but it's handled with great sensitivity, aided by Jason Chin's soft pastel watercolors and sepia-toned flashbacks. And it features a realistic main character who shows all the grumpiness and skepticism a kid her age might have when her parents throw something out of the ordinary her way. Parents should be prepared to discuss the implication that her mother's little brother, with a "hollow face" and "as thin as a stem of watercress," died of starvation.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the family story of hardship in Watercress. Have you heard stories of difficult times for your parents or relatives? How does that make you feel?
Is there any food that your family eats that holds a special memory for you, your parents, or cargivers?
Have you ever eaten fruit or vegetables picked fresh in the wild, on a farm, or from your own backyard or windowsill planter? Does it taste fresher or better than store-bought?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Jason Chin
- Genre : Picture Book
- Topics : Family Stories ( Siblings ) , History
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Neal Porter Books
- Publication date : March 30, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 4 - 8
- Number of pages : 32
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Awards : ALA Best and Notable Books , Caldecott Medal and Honors
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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