In this autobiographical novel set in the 1940s, the author tells of her childhood in China and her dream to buy a special gift for her grandmother's birthday--an apple, a fruit that is precious and rare in her part of mainland China. The child's voice and the intensity of her desire to do something for her grandmother, who has raised her from early childhood, are very real. This first novel by a Chinese immigrant is poignant, memorable, and presented in a format that is accessible to readers at the chapter book level and beyond.