Measuring Up
by Lily LaMotte
A warm graphic novel about a Taiwanese-American girl who enters a cooking competition to bring her grandmother across the ocean
The story
When twelve-year-old Cici moves from Taiwan to Seattle, she's heartbroken to leave her beloved grandmother behind. Discovering a local cooking competition with a cash prize big enough for a plane ticket, Cici teams up with a new friend to compete — navigating cultural differences, friendship pressures, and the challenge of honoring her heritage while finding her place in a new world.
Age verdict
Best at ages 9-11, works well for 8-13. Younger readers engage through visuals and competition story; older readers connect with identity and cultural themes.
Our take
Growth-oriented — parents and teachers value this slightly more than kids do for its rich cultural content, strong representation, and real-world window into immigrant experience. Kid appeal is solid, driven by emotional authenticity and visual storytelling rather than entertainment fireworks.
What stands out
Each audience's top 3 dimensions. Out of 30 scored per book.
Kids love
- Ending satisfaction Exceptional
competition goal, friendship repair, family reunification, cultural identity integration. Each arc honors invested patience. Sits at tier 9 because multi-layered simultaneous payoff exceeds single-resolution endings.
- Mental movie Strong
saturated Taiwan warmth, muted-warming Seattle, varied panel layouts. Visual storytelling is cinematic and primary. Sits at tier 8 because illustration carries narrative with strong color/composition mastery.
Parents love
- Stereotype-breaker Strong
Comparable to Blended (P3=6 building) — Cici subverts model-minority by showing belonging-struggle rather than simple excellence. Grandmother's wisdom through food/love, not cultural tropes. Sits at tier 8 because stereotype-breaking is active throughout and cultural presentation normalizes.
- Real-world window Strong
Comparable to Blended (P6=10 level) — Immigration experience, Taiwanese traditions, cooking as preservation, cross-cultural navigation, family-across-continents. Opens wide and specific real-experience window. Sits at tier 8 because while genuine and specific, narrower (one culture-pair) than tier 10 multi-dimensional books.
Teachers love
- Empathy & self-awareness Strong
Comparable to empathy-standard — Immigrant perspective illuminates non-displaced students, validates those who have. Friendship-conflict sides emotionally-understandable. Students develop empathy for invisible labor of navigating cultures. Sits at tier 8.
- Classroom versatility Strong
Comparable to classroom-versatility benchmark — Functions across independent reading, guided reading, novel study (cultural content), literature circles (friendship), cross-curricular cultural studies. Competition structure provides natural lesson frameworks. Sits at tier 7.
✓ Perfect for
- • Kids interested in cooking and food culture
- • Readers exploring immigration and cultural identity themes
- • Graphic novel fans looking for emotionally rich stories
- • Children in immigrant families who want to see their experience reflected
Not ideal for
Readers seeking fast-paced action, fantasy, or laugh-out-loud comedy — this is an emotionally grounded story that builds gradually rather than delivering entertainment fireworks.
⚠ Heads up
At a glance
- Pages
- 208
- Chapters
- 13
- Words
- 8k
- Lexile
- GN530L
- Difficulty
- Easy
- POV
- First Person
- Illustration
- Fully Illustrated
- Published
- 2020
- Publisher
- HarperAlley
- Illustrator
- Ann Xu
- ISBN
- 9780062973863
Mood & style
You'll know it worked when…
A child who loves this book will likely enjoy Front Desk by Kelly Yang, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, and When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson.
More like this
Same genre, similar age range. Ranked by kid score.
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