Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic

Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education
Editor’s Choice, Booklist
Charlotte Zolotow Award - Highly Commended Title, Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)
Choices, Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)
Original Art Show, Society of Illustrators
Picture Book winner, Oregon Spirit Book Award

When Jinyi and her family discover a soybean field, they begin a tradition that becomes a staple of the Chinese American community in the Midwest.

Jinyi and her sister love visiting Auntie and Uncle Yang’s home, where they enjoy dumpling-eating contests and backyard adventures with their cousins. One weekend, on a Sunday drive among the cornfields near Chicago, Auntie Yang spots something she has never before seen in Illinois. Could it be one of their favorite Chinese foods-soybeans?!

Excited by their discovery, the families have their very first soybean picnic. Every year after that, Auntie Yang invites more people to share the food and fun. Pretty soon more than two hundred friends and neighbors are gathering at the picnic to play games and eat soybeans together.

Unique illustrations painted on ceramic plates lend a quirky charm to this lighthearted intergenerational story. Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic is a delicious celebration of family traditions, culture, and community that will have readers asking for seconds, thirds, and more.