Apple Pie Fourth of July: A Picture Book About a Chinese American Girl, Her Family, and Fireworks for Kids (Ages 4-7)

A lighthearted but meaningful look at the very American experience of mixed cultures.

No one wants Chinese food on the Fourth of July, I say. We're in apple-pie America, and my parents are cooking chow mein! They just don't get it. Americans do not eat Chinese food on the Fourth of July. Right?

Shocked that her parents are cooking Chinese food to sell in the family store on this all-American holiday, a feisty Chinese-American girl tries to tell her mother and father how things really are. But as the parade passes by and fireworks light the sky, she learns a lesson of her own.

"Explores the child's experience of straddling two cultures—and serves up an ending as satisfying as sweet-and-sour pork and a crusty dessert." (Washington Post)

JANET S. WONG is an award-winning author of picture books and poetry for young readers. Her picture books include Apple Pie Fourth of July, Hide and Seek, and Buzz, all illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine, and The Trip Back Home, illustrated by Bo Jia. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

MARGARET CHODOS-IRVINE is the author and illustrator of Best Best Friends and Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, a Caldecott Honor Book. She also illustrated Apple Pie Fourth of July,Hide and Seek, and Buzz, all by Janet S. Wong, Once Around the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson, Only You by Robin Cruise, and My House Is Singing by Betsy R. Rosenthal. Margaret Chodos-Irvine lives in Seattle, Washington.