Watercress

Title: Watercress

Writer: Andrea Wang

Illustrator: Jason Chin

Publisher: Neal Porter Books

Cover image from Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin, © Neal Porter Books / Holiday House, 2021. Used under fair use for educational review purposes.

Summary

This book tells the story of an Asian American immigrant family who collects watercress from the side of the road. The young narrator feels embarrassed and ashamed at first, but the experience leads to a deeper understanding of her family’s history and why they forage.

Cultural Analysis

I lived in China for nearly a decade, and this book resonated deeply with me because of the people I came to know and the history I learned while I was there. Events such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were rarely spoken about, and when they were, the discussions were often framed in sanitized language by the current iteration of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Even though these periods are not analyzed critically (read: openly), their effects can still be seen in the food people eat. From my experience, many dishes incorporate grains like millet, which remained staples during those lean years when other grains like the more expensive rice and wheat were scarce (or completely unavailable) and continue to be part of the cuisine today.

This story accomplishes a great deal in just a few pages and with a relatively low word count. It touches on food culture, an essential element of Chinese society, while also addressing themes of loss, silence, and even shame surrounding the historical events that shaped one of the largest nations our planet has ever seen. It does so delicately and with remarkable compassion.

This book contains limited text in free verse, which I believe is a strength, especially considering the complexity of the topic and the audience (elementary to middle school children). One of the most powerful moments was near the end when child Andrea has refused to eat the dish made form the watercress that they foraged. To child Andrea:

“Free is bad.

Free is

hand-me-down clothes and

roadside trash-heap furniture and

now,

dinner from a ditch.”

The combination of the text and the images powerfully show that Andrea is not upset just about the watercress but about the difficulty of being Asian in a primarily (at the time) white country. She’s upset about how other people perceive her because of her parents and their thrifty habits.

Child Andrea’s reaction and refusal to eat prompter her mother to bring out a picture of her family that included her brother, which she had not spoken about. In the picture her a picture of her brother who died in the famine.

In the image, her brother is small and very thin. Her mother finally shares what happened to him.

“During the great

famine,” she says,

“we ate anything

we could find,”

Which included an image of her brother with an empty bowl asking for more. Her mother’s family appears sad, which clearly indicates that there is no more.

Literary Quality

Interior illustration from Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin, © Neal Porter Books / Holiday House, 2021. Used under fair use for educational analysis.

The next image shows the same scene and is one of the most powerful. Her brother is gone, it is raining and her mother, her grandmother and grandfather are emaciated.

“but it was still

not enough.”

This is one of the most powerful images and text sequences I’ve seen in any children’s book. I’ve been fighting back tears as I’m writing this because of how the text and the image so clearly and cleanly show in a child-appropriate way, how the famine affected her family. It says so much without saying it all.

As the book comes to a close, child Andrea eating the dish and the language is so clear. The dish has a “delicate and/slightly bitter [taste]” which is “like Mom’s memories/of home.”

And to lighten the heaviness and weight of this very weighty topic, Wang concludes with

“Together,

we eat it

all

and make a

new memory of

watercress.”

She has both shows how history has tragically affected her family, but also how her family has taken that history and used it to make newer, happier memories.

The language in Watercress is written in free verse, but it also reads very much like a traditional storybook, which I think is incredibly clever. It feels poetic without being confusing and stays easy to follow for younger readers. The story is written entirely in standard English and does not rely on any negative stereotypes or exaggerated speech patterns that have often been used in the past when depicting Asian or immigrant families.

Having known and worked with many Chinese English speakers, I did notice that all of the dialogue is written as if spoken by first-language English speakers, even for the parents who were born in China. In reality, they would probably speak English with an accent or slightly different phrasing. While this means the parents are not linguistically accurate representations of first-generation immigrants, I think it is an intentional choice. The story is told from Andrea’s point of view as a second-generation Chinese American child. She hears her parents’ words as clear and familiar, not foreign or broken. This choice helps center her experience and reminds the reader that this is her story, told through her understanding and emotional truth rather than perfect realism.

Language/Speech

Characters

This book features a primary character, Andrea Wang as a young girl, along with her parents, her brother, and her mother’s parents and deceased brother. Five of the seven family members were born in China, while Andrea and her brother were born in the United States to Chinese-born parents.

Cultural Background

Watercress reflects the experiences of Chinese immigrant families who came to the United States after the hardships of mid-twentieth-century China. Andrea Wang’s parents lived through the Great Chinese Famine, which took place between 1959 and 1961 during the Great Leap Forward. That history helps explain her parents’ frugality and their habit of foraging for food, which are portrayed with care and without judgment. The book also shows (heartbreakingly) the experience of second-generation children who grow up between cultures, feeling both connection to and distance from their parents’ past. It shows how memories of survival, loss, and migration continue to shape family traditions and emotions long after those events have passed.

Lifestyle

The family in Watercress lives a modest life shaped by their immigrant experience. They value thrift, resourcefulness, and family connection, reflecting habits carried over from times of scarcity in China. Their simple meals, shared work, and quiet togetherness show a lifestyle built on gratitude, memory, and making the most of what they have.

Author photo of Andrea Wang from her official website. Used under fair use for educational purposes.

Artistic Quality

The art is beautiful. Bryan uses an exaggerated, whimsical style to depict the characters, yet the exaggeration never distorts them in a stereotypical or disrespectful way. Each person is distinct, with unique features and expressions, though some faces lean slightly toward caricature. If Bryan were not African American, I might view these depictions more critically, but given his heritage and intent, it is clear that his choices are stylistic rather than exploitative. Every illustration is created with care and respect, capturing both the individuality and humanity of the people he portrays.

Illustration Purpose

The illustrations in Watercress are beautiful and deeply moving. They artfully depict a sensitive and painful story about the immigrant experience and the suffering caused by the Great Leap Forward in China. The art is realistic, detailed, and full of emotion without ever relying on stereotypes. Each image supports the text perfectly, conveying feelings that words alone could not. The soft, natural colors and expressive faces help the reader feel both the heaviness of memory and the quiet hope that grows by the end. The artwork is every bit as beautiful and powerful as the language itself.

Purpose

The purpose of Watercress is to show the immigrant experience and the feeling of being “other” in a society that often centers whiteness. It also reveals how the pain and trauma of events like the Great Leap Forward continue to shape later generations. Through the quiet story of one family, this book shows how memories of hardship, loss, and resilience are passed down, and how understanding those experiences can lead to healing and connection.

Insider/Outsider Status

Wang is an insider. She is the daughter of immigrant parents (first generation immigrants) and a second-generation Chinese American herself. The illustrator is also Chinese American, thus an insider as well.

I love this book so much that I am adding it to my list of books to purchase for my media center. It is beautifully written and illustrated, emotionally powerful, and deeply meaningful. Watercress not only tells an important story about family, history, and identity, but it also encourages empathy and understanding among readers of all backgrounds. I’d say though that this book should like be read with caution with primary students (PreK-2nd) since the topics are so weighty.

I think (part of why) it resonated with me so deeply because of my own history in China. When I left, I had lived there for almost a third of my life, and that experience shaped me in ways I still carry. I saw firsthand how the past quietly lingers in everyday life but isn’t spoken about. Living there taught me how culture, memory, and resilience intertwine, often without words. Watercress captures that beautifully. It reminds me of the families I knew, the stories they could not always tell, and the quiet strength that defined so many of them. That is why this book feels so personal to me and why I want my students to read it.