Bigmama's

Book Description

When the train arrived in Cottondale, the summer at Bigmama's house in Florida began. Donald Crews brilliantly evokes the sights, sounds, and emotions of a memorable childhood experience. "A very special book by a superb artist and storyteller."--Horn Book.

Customer Reviews:

Big Mama's House.......2005-05-09

Did you see her, did you see Big Mama.
When these children arrived at their grand mothers house right away they were going to have a good time. The cool thing about this book is he rights another that tells you how they got home from the lake. This book is called Short Cut. I recommend this book to someone who just likes to have a good time.

A warm oportunity to reflect on special people and places........1997-11-02

Donald Crews departs from his usual simple text about such things as trucks and boats to share his childhood memories. The bold and colorful illustrations we usually find in his work are replaced by soft gentle colors and lines. Perhaps my endearment to this book stems from my own fond memories of riding the train back to my grandmother's home in Davenport, Iowa. Yet, there is more to this story than shared memories of days gone by. Even young children have memories of warm moments with someone special. As a first grade teacher I share this book with my students. It is a delight to see the special smiles that illuminate their faces, like the sweet smell of Spring, when they think of their special someone. For some children they think, like Crews, of grandma and her special cooking, for others their thoughts are of a visit to mom in a distant state. There thoughts are not meloncholy, like Crews, they are pleasant reminders of the treasures we find in each other.

Average customer rating:

Had a hard time finishing it
Even a blade of grass makes a difference
A Complex Metaphoric Novel of Apartheid
Ambitious but does not engage the reader
Neither here nor there

A Blade of Grass: A Novel
Lewis DeSoto
Manufacturer: Ecco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060554266
Release Date: 2003-09-16

Amazon.com

Lewis De Soto's debut novel, A Blade of Grass, tells the story of Marit Laurens, a young woman of British descent, recently orphaned, who has moved with her new husband Ben to a remote farm on the contested borderland between South Africa and an unnamed country. When Ben is killed by a bomb in an act of guerilla warfare, she decides to stay on and run the farm. Alone in the world, she befriends Tembi, the daughter of her black housemaid, who has also been killed, in an accident. Struggling to transform herself as the surrounding countryside descends into bloody conflict, Marit finds herself caught between the fear and prejudices of the local Afrikaner community and the shifting loyalties and growing feeling of entitlement of the indigenous black workers. When first the Afrikaners and then the blacks flee the area, and the outside world starts to encroach menacingly on the isolated farm, Marit is stripped of everything that gave her a sense of self and a sense of belonging to this place.

A Blade of Grass is a delicate, if at times naively sentimental, exploration of the arc of a courageous relationship between two women from different societies, each an outcast from her own, during the death throes of apartheid: from the rigid structure of master and servant, through the tenderness of the shared experience of aloneness and defiance in the face of societal pressures, to betrayal. De Soto has transformed the quiet immensity of the South African veldt into spare, luminous prose. He contains everything--repression and ownership, belonging and loss, humiliation and hope--in the small gesture, the seed, the blade of grass. The story's brutality is barely graphic in its depiction, but the terror is present nonetheless, lurking insistently beneath the surface, waiting at the edge of the farm. --Diana Kuprel, Amazon.ca

Book Description

Set on the border between South Africa and an unnamed neighboring country in the 1970s, A Blade of Grass is a suspenseful novel about a bitter struggle over a small farm and its dramatic consequences for two women, one white and one black.

The story centers on Märit Laurens, a young woman of British descent, recently orphaned and newly wed, who comes to live with her husband, Ben, on their newly purchased farm. Shortly after her arrival, violence strikes at the heart of Märit's world, leaving her alone and isolated. Devastated, confused, but determined to run the farm on her own, Märit finds herself in a simmering tug of war between the local Afrikaner community that surrounds the farm and the black workers who live on it, both vying for control over the land in the wake of tragedy.

Märit's only supporter is her black housekeeper, Tembi, who, like Märit, is alone in the world. The women are determined to hold on to the farm, but the quietly encroaching civil war brings out conflicting loyalties that turn the fight for the farm into a fight for their lives.

A Blade of Grass is a wrenching story of friendship and betrayal and of the trauma of the land that has shaped post-colonial Africa. Thrilling to read and morally complex in its message, it offers a fresh, profound, and emotionally immediate perspective on what it means to be black or white in a country where both races live and feel entitlement.

Customer Reviews:

Had a hard time finishing it.......2006-05-04

This book moved slowly, and didn't keep me interested very well. The symbology was not very subtle, the author just laid it out in front of you, not letting you search for it at all. I thought the second half was better than the first.

Even a blade of grass makes a difference.......2005-11-18

"A Blade of Grass" by Lewis DeSoto is one of my favorite books of all time. The main theme of the story is self-searching and looking for your place in the world. Who are you? Is it dependent on other people? Are you always the same person in different places, times and environments? What's love? What's frienship? Those and many other questions had the author in mind when wirting the novel. "A Blade of Grass" is a beautiful story of trying to survive, breaking the waves and fighting ourselves. There's no need to point out all the aspects of the book, because it's so multi-dimensional that everyone should find his own views on it. A must-read for sensitive readers, who are not afraid of asking questions and thinking on many levels.

A Complex Metaphoric Novel of Apartheid.......2004-10-25

From the first words of this novel, the reader is propelled into the world of the inhabitants of a farm in South Africa on the eve of the increasingly oppressive laws prohibiting blacks from living in certain areas. Superbly well-plotted, the novel describes the complexity of relationships between blacks and whites during this critical historical time, and charts the reality of the effects of apartheid in the everyday lives of the characters, most particularly, the repression and violence that such a system engenders. Still, in the person of Tembi, there is enormous humanity and hope for the future, though the novel does not flinch from describing loss, pain, and violence. To me, the novel raises the important issue of how safe any home can be if it is erected on an edifice of inequity -- an issue that transcends what happened in South Africa. Throughout, the desire of each character for a meaningful, dignified life is artfully explored. And the land is delinated in such a way that it too becomes a character. I couldn't put this novel down.

Ambitious but does not engage the reader.......2004-05-13

The story revolves around on the relationship between two women, one white the other black, in South Africa during the times of the apartheid. I found the theme is extremely interesting and since several book clubs have featured "A Blade of Grass" as their main selection, I decided to read the book. To my disappointment I found myself tumbling along the pages, due to the far from efficient execution by the author. In most cases the descriptions DeSoto presents are rich and enlightening, but the dialogue lacks depth and interest.

Marit Laurens has just moved with her husband to the African countryside after the death of her parents. The newlywed couple bought a farm, named it Kudufontein, and set out to carve their own future. Marit is in charge of handling the accounts, correspondence, bills and wages, while her husband, Ben, runs all the other aspects related to the farm. Soon after the move, Marit starts to question the cleverness of this new enterprise, since she feels very lonely during the time Ben is out on the fields. Also, she is in fear of the war going on close by, on the country's border, where guerrillas are attacking farms to regain their God-given rights over the land.

As a way to find solace, Marit tries to establish a relationship with her maid, Grace, but is self-restricted by the racial barriers and customs she has observed and practiced all her life. When shortly afterwards Grace is killed in an accident, Marit starts to get closer to Tembi, Grace's daughter, and offers her the job as a maid. From this point on, several events develop, like the strengthening of apartheid and the reception of fatal news by Marit, which bring the two women closer together.

Lewis DeSoto scores high in his description of the effects of apartheid on people on both sides of the "conflict", and the story has value in showing how race should not be a barrier in human relationships and friendship. However, he loses the reader's interest in several instances during the story, making finishing the book more a chore than a real pleasure. I hope that he perfects his writing abilities and delivers a better polished novel next time, since he has good ideas for the plot and just needs to improve in the execution.

Neither here nor there.......2004-03-18

Though I found this book hard to put down, I felt it was lacking. It was not fast moving, yet it wasn't meant to be. The main character, Marit, did not change or grow much, and as the end of the book drew near I felt her fate was inevitable, yet I was unsure of the lesson to be learned from it. At the end I no longer felt anything for her. The dialogue could use some work, and the symbology of the land with life was a little too obvious; it was almost cheesy. Regardless, the novel held me because it had a layer of hope hidden under the surface. It reminded me of how helpless we really are and that sometimes hard work and dedication mean nothing in a world torn by war and injustice. I felt that the author captured these feelings very well.

The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County

Average customer rating:

Charming Girl and Hen
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County

The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County
Janice N. Harrington
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374312516
Release Date: 2007-03-20

Book Description

Meet one smart chicken chaser. She can catch any chicken on her grandmother’s farm except one – the elusive Miss Hen. In a hilarious battle of wits, the spirited narrator regales readers with her campaign to catch Miss Hen, but this chicken is “fast as a mosquito buzzing and quick as a fleabite.” Our chicken chaser has her mind set on winning, until she discovers that sometimes it’s just as satisfying not to catch chickens as it is to catch them.

A fresh voice full of sass and inventive, bold collage illustrations full of surprises create a childlike escapade brimming with funny high jinks that leads the reader on a merry, memorable chase.

Customer Reviews:

Charming Girl and Hen .......2007-06-02

Called "Baby" and "Girl" by Big Mama, the first-person narrator does three things. every morning after she has brushed her teeth whiter than a biscuit. She eats breakfast, tells Big Mama stories, and chases chickens. She has given herself the fine, richly deserved title of, "The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County." Her favorite prey is Miss Hen, who completely and competently eludes her.

In this delightfully humorous story of a small country girl's favorite pastime, young readers, who will likely never meet a free-ranging chicken, will relish the perfect ending. The vernacular of our queen never hits a false note. The illustrations of the happy, self-satisfied child make the viewer smile just to look at them. Collage and watercolor, and chickens flap across pages. The picture of girl and hen studying each other with one eye closed is truly classic. An absolute gem of a book.

The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County.......2007-04-20

Harrington, Janice N. The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County

I absolutely love this book. It is full of delicious language, "The chickens watch me, and I watch them. I think all kinds of chicken thoughts so they will not know I am up to something... Worms, slurms, swishy-mishy, ickly-tickly worms!" The exuberant text begs to be read-aloud and the illustrations are outstanding.
Right from the beginning, a young African American girl announces, "I'm the chicken-chasing Queen of Lamar County." She tells her own story in folksy language, "I always do three things, eat breakfast, tell stories to Big Mama, and--when Big Mama isn't looking--chase chickens!" She knows that she is breaking her Grandmother's admonition not to chase the chickens because they might stop laying eggs but just cannot "help herself". One double spread shows the girl's shinning eyes and incredible smile as she is reaching out to catch a chicken. Big Mama's wise sayings are fluidly incorporated into the story, "Big Mama says you can do anything you put your mind to -if you want it bad enough". Similes, like "feathers are shiny as a rained-on roof"," Plump (Miss Hen) as a Sunday purse" and "as fast as a mosquito buzzing and quick as a fleabite."
The artist paints in warm colors and utilizes collage to capture the facial expressions, posture and lively action splendidly. The presentation is eye catching: One double spread has the girl closing one eye and peeking at Miss Hen; around her swirls things she is thinking about: eggs, corn bread and a slimy worm, so the chickens can not figure out her real intention is to chase them. A cautious Miss Hen closes one eye and cocks her head so she can peer back at the girl. In another double spread, the little girl jumps and spreads her arms and legs wide, and Miss Hen mimics her by spreading her wings. In another double spread, the perspective is from above so everything going on in the barnyard is visible. Each electric page has full color backgrounds without any white space. Do not miss this gem!

Average customer rating:

A fantastic book, especially if you work with balloons!
Enchanting Tale
great story. great illustrations.
Sick Hated this book
"How Can I Get Some Seeds From This Guy ?"

Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm
Jerdine Nolen
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0688158455

Book Description

Harvey Potter was a very strange fellow indeed. He was a farmer but not like any farmer you've ever met. He didn't grow corn, okra, or tomatoes. Harvey Potter grew balloons. No one knew exactly how he did it, but with the help of the light of a full moon, one friendly child catches a peek of just how Harvey Potter does it. And keeps some magic for herself.

"This is the best sort of fantasy imaginative, inventive, and believable. Harvey Potter is a wonder he's the owner of a genuine U.S. Government Inspected Balloon farm. And Nolen's tale about this man, narrated by the African-American girl who learns balloon-farming magic from him, is equally wondrous.... This title should sail onto every library shelf. May Nolen grow a bumper crop of books." School Library Journal.

"Downright glorious."Publishers Weekly(starred review).

Customer Reviews:

A fantastic book, especially if you work with balloons!.......2006-11-13

I was given a copy of this book as a gift from a fellow Balloon Artist! We work with party balloons every day, and what a delight it was to recieve Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm! I have since given copies to other Balloonies around the world and on every occasion they have been as delighted as me. The book is beautifully illustrated...the story magical! I look forward to the day I have a grandchild to read it to so that they will understand the magic of balloons!
Sue Marston-Weston, UK.

Enchanting Tale.......2006-11-11

Harry Potter's Balloon Farm is an enchanting tale with marvelous pictures. A young girl is fascinated about Mr. Potter's balloons. She secretly spies on him one magical night to see how they are created. The drawings are vibrant and visually entertaining. My kids enjoyed finding the cat, cow, rabbit, chicken, T.Rex, and pig hidden on every page.

great story. great illustrations........2006-11-11

This book will captivate your children while warming the hearts of those reading to them. The pictures are a pleasure for the senses and the story is one of mystery and fun. This book is always a favorite.

Sick Hated this book.......2006-06-08

What kind of sicko writes a book like this? Horrible. Has dancing, chanting, mystic, magic, night time hauntings. All under the cover of a little balloon farm. You would have to be ignorant not to see it. You want your children reading something sick like this with undertones of everything that is bad. Go ahead. I hated this and threw it out. Dumb and the lady is right, bad grammer too.

"How Can I Get Some Seeds From This Guy ?".......2006-01-15

Seed Catalogs have begun to fill up the mailbox and it sure would be exciting to have a harvest like Harvey Potter's! He has worked magic with a "conjure stick" and Mark Buehner's overflowing paint pot all of which add to the success of author Jerdine Nolen's book.

Adults may laugh more than the kids at the idea of a genuine "U.S. Inspected Balloon Farm" . . . and it is a sure sign that a Tall Tale has hit home when the 'elders' feel NOSTALGIC about a story, as if it had really happened. This story ranks taller than Paul Bunyan for me.

Reviewer mcHAIKU isn't the only reader to feel chagrin at not having been up that tree in Harvey's yard to learn the marvelous secret of his green & red & orange & yellow & blue & violet AND black latex gardening thumb. It isn't too easy to discover even one jelly-bean-black balloon but no one will mind searching over & over again through this earthy, laughter-filled book. We should all make notations to read "Harvey potter's Balloon Garden" on Earth Day each year!

The Story of an African Farm (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Spectacular
Complex, Deep and Moving
Much more than a feminist novel, novel for every one
Picture of South African Victorian Culture
A book so ahead of its years it's astonishing.

The Story of an African Farm (Penguin Classics)
Olive Schreiner
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140431845

Book Description

1927. A classic story of rural life in 19th Century South Africa, it is a searing indictment of the rigid Boer social conventions. The first of the great South African novel chronicles the adventures of three childhood friends who defy societal repression. The novel's unorthodox views on religion and marriage aroused widespread controversy upon its 1883 publication, and the work retains in power more than a century later.

Download Description

At last came the year of the great drought, the year of eighteen-sixty-two. From end to end of the land the earth cried for water. Man and beast turned their eyes to the pitiless sky, that like the roof of some brazen oven arched overhead. On the farm, day after day, month after month, the water in the dams fell lower and lower; the sheep died in the fields; the cattle, scarcely able to crawl, tottered as they moved from spot to spot in search of food.

Customer Reviews:

Spectacular.......2006-07-01

True to the topic, it transports you right there. Historical and old, but still current.

Complex, Deep and Moving.......2005-06-15

"Story of an African Farm" is a difficult work to describe. It must be read several times, and carefully pondered before all of its secrets are unlocked.

Ostensibly, the book revolves around the lives of three children (and, later, adults) who live in the Karroo plains of South Africa. The main focus, however, is on two of the characters - Waldo, the earnest and deeply curious son of the German farmkeeper, and Lyndall, the beautiful, outspoken and rebellious orphan who suffers all her life for her ideals.

The book itself is semi-autobiographical. Waldo represents Schreiner's journey from fanatical, childlike faith to bitter skepticism, who reaches a watershed of sorts when he hisses to Lyndall 'There is no God - none!'. Lyndall, on the other hand, embodies Schreiner's frustation with her station as a woman - barred from the upper echelons of society, and her inability to find a mate who is both her intellectual match and willing to accept her as an equal. "I want to love", she whispers to the grave of Waldo's father, "I want something great and pure to lift me to itself."

There are many other themes that flesh out the subtext of this extraordinary book - the tragedy of solitude, that ultimately, all humans are alone in the cosmos. "Dear eyes", the dying Lyndall whispers to her mirror, "they will never part us."

Readers who expect a narrative will be dissapointed. What narrative there is serves only to undersore the book's many themes. Often, the flow of the story is out of sequence, or devoid of context, and deliberately so. Roughly, the book is divided into three sections - the first introduces us to the characters as children, and reveals their innermost thoughts. The second, and shortest section is entitled "Times and Seasons". It is somewhat of a summary of what has gone before, dealing mostly with Waldo's journey from Christian fanaticism to dispairing atheism, and foreshadows some of what is to come. The third, and longest section, covers the lives of the characters as adults, and is by far the most powerful, and moving piece of the book.

The reader who is looking for mindless action is advised to pick up the latest Tom Clancy novel, or whatever passes for literature these days. Those who are willing to put aside all preconceived notions, and have their cherished beliefs challenged are invited to read this book. The search for truth is endless. But this book is a perfect place to begin.

Much more than a feminist novel, novel for every one.......2003-09-04

I thought this book was one of the best books Ive ever read it describes how people feel and view the world from inside themselves but can never express this externally or even realise they are thinking these things themselves.

For me It depicts how inadequate we all are men and women, when it comes to Love, and expressing it and sharing it. it flumoxes us all, Its too big for us, "the chickens had more sense"....pass the worms please.

Picture of South African Victorian Culture.......2000-07-12

Written about a South African farm. this book depicts the story of a family and how they interact throughout the book. The most striking dynamic in the book is the relationships of the women in it. It portrays female existence in a realistic light even for today. The story has a lot of character to it, and I would recommend it highly for teachers who want to teach about feminism.

A book so ahead of its years it's astonishing........2000-06-13

When The Story of an African Farm was published in 1883, the title gave no indication to readers what the complex scope of the novel was really about.

Written by South African governess, Olive Schreiner, the book's crux ran along the controversal: the oppression of women, feminism, the existance of God, anti-imperialism, the bizarre transformation of one the novel's characters (not Lyndall) into a transvestite. It goes on and on. The novel was written when the belief of agnosticism was in the early stages of being in 'vogue.' Also interesting, Darwin's Origin of the Species had been published for some time, and the theory had rooted itself in many areas of society.

This was not the traditional Victorian novel that was written in the old English 'bonne bouche' manner on par with Jane Eyre or Emma. The prose of the novel has a broken up fluidity to it; it is not grandiloquent; it is in fact, quite brutal, edgy. As Elaine Showalter writes in the excellent introduction to the Bantam Classic edition, "Readers expecting the structured plot of a typical three-volume Victorian novel were startled by the oddity of African Farm, with its poetic, allegorical, and distinct passages, and its defiance of narrative and sexual conventions." With that clearly explained, it is not a surprise that it shocked old, priggish Englanders with their stiff upper lips and staunch, conservative manners, nor is it shocking that the Church of England called the novel "blasphemous."

African Farm details the lives of three key characters: Waldo, Em and Lyndall. The latter character is the one who seems to bring up the key issues that made the novel controversal. Lyndall is always described as 'little,' 'delicate,' 'like a doll,' 'a flower.' However, she is the one who refuses to marry (with one minor exception to the rule) until a social equilibrium is established between men and women. She desires equality between the sexes, and is willing to suffer for it. And she does, more than what is expected. Odd as it may seem, but considering the period in which the novel was written, the character of Lyndall really had to be physically 'feminized' in order to make up for her strongly held convictions of being a 'total' woman and not 'half' a woman.

If any person reads the novel, the character of Lyndall needs (from my view) special attention, for she questions the values of men, women who accepted the standard, religion and the social hierarchy in which she was born. Her questions seem like cartels, challenges. Why can't she have a job? Why can't she be educated or independent without the stigma 'weirdo' unflinchingly attached to her? Why must she be dubbed 'strange?' The reader must always ask why when reading this book. The three characters, Lyndall especially, endure a lot of hardship, a hardship that mirrored the very author's life, i.e. her cold and distant upbringing, the religious retraints placed on her life as well as the life-clenching grasp that old norms had on women of that period. African Farm was Olive Schreiner's liberty, her freedom from the societal choke hold.

Book Description

Hello Friend

Children love to learn and are always figuring things out about themselves and the world around them. And the more they know, the better equipped they are to handle the challenges of growing up.

Little Bill encourages children to value their family and friends, to feel good about themselves, and to learn to solve problems creatively. I hope young readers will see Little Bill as their friend and enjoy his real-life adventures.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book .......2007-01-09

All Little Bill books are outstanding books to add to any childs library of books. My 3 1/2 yr old loves this book and all the animals that are featured in it.

Average customer rating:

Nice book! (interesting topics)
Life's Hard at Times
Too many issues, too little time!

The Hard-Times Jar
Ethel Footman Smothers
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374328528

Book Description

A look at the life of migrant workers through a child’s eyes

Emma Turner loves books and dreams of one day having the store-bought kind, but the Turners are migrant workers and money is tight. That means “no extras,” so Emma must be content to make her own stories and books. Emma has a plan, though – she’s going to save all the money she earns picking apples and put it in Mama’s hard-times jar. Then there will surely be enough for extras. But when Mama tells Emma that this year she has to go to school instead of to work, it spoils everything. Now she will never own a store-bought book! But school turns out to have a wonderful surprise in store for Emma.

Based on Ethel Footman Smothers’s childhood, the story is brought to life with lush acrylic paintings, giving us a touching portrait of a book-hungry child.

Customer Reviews:

Nice book! (interesting topics).......2006-04-20

There may be episodes in our lives, where we experience some hard times. These may be due to family issues, school related problems, misunderstanding between friends, or financial problems as it is in Emma's situation. Emma is a seven year old girl who lives with her family. Emma wishes to own a real book from the store, but realizes that the money in the hard times jar that her mother has is to be used in difficult times. Despite the fact that Emma is not able to buy any books, she finds her way around and decides to write during her free time in order to create her own book.
Emma who enjoys picking apples with her family is suddenly told by her mother that she will soon attend school. Emma becomes nervous after learning about her mother's decision. Once in school Emma notices that she is the only chocolate brown student in Miss Miller's class. This surprised her because back home in Florida there was still segregation. All her worries suddenly vanish when she is introduced to her school library. Enthusiastic to have books available, Emma disobeys the class rules and takes books home for the weekend. After her mother finds out about the books, she talks to Emma about being dishonest and advises her to tell her teacher. Emma then finds courage and explains what happens to Miss. Miller.
This book conveys a message of honesty and perseverance, and reminds me of "A chair for my mother," by Vera Williams, where her characters support each other to reach a goal as they do in Emma's family. After reading this wonderful book that contains rich descriptive language with wonderful illustrations, I was able to transport myself into the Pennsylvania setting. The way Ethel Smothers pictures the crops allows the text to run smoothly. It also reminds me of the visits to my uncle's farms back in Ecuador, where the sun was always bright and the climate was so inspiring and calm. I was able to connect to Emma in the same way she did with her family. They were close to one another, looked out for each other, and encouraged each other to be honest no matter what the circumstances, as I am with my family. In addition, the facial expressions on the characters where also very interesting. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about being determined, honest, and supportive in order to reach a goal.

Life's Hard at Times.......2005-09-10

Learning life's lessons can be hard at times, but sometimes the hard times make us strong and patient.

Too many issues, too little time!.......2005-02-10

Ethel F. Smothers' The Hard Times Jar is the story of Emma and her poor, migrant working family who do not have access to Emma's one true love: books. Although the theme resounds with readers and depicts the experiences of some children today, major issues such as discrimination and segregation, which are briefly mentioned when Emma enters an all white school, are not dealt with thoroughly. The author's use of descriptive language does, however, allow the reader to connect to Emma's longing for books and provides the reader with an opportunity to appreciate what is so easily taken for granted.

Average customer rating:

time to get up!

Summer Sun Risin
W. Nikola-Lisa
Manufacturer: Lee & Low Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1584300345

Book Description

From sunrise to sunset, an African American boy spends an activity-filled summer day helping his family on their farm. Feeding animals, mowing hay, picking vegetables, and eating freshly caught fish fill the hours. Set in Texas in the 1950s, Summer Sun Risin' is Parenting Reading Magic Award winner W. Nikola-Lisa's tribute to childhood, farm life, and family togetherness. Don Tate's sun-drenched paintings depict the family's daily activities and trace the sun as it travels across the sky.

Customer Reviews:

time to get up!.......2005-05-10

Days on the farm start as soon as the sun risies. There are always chores to do. Animal must be fed and crops tended to. This family in the book workd ahrd and works together. At the end of the day there is even time for fishing and relaxing on the porch. The theem of the book is hard work always pays off in the end.

Average customer rating:

Family Unity
A book to share again and again and again...
Appeals to All
Fantastic
Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Pie
Kathleen D. Lindsey
Manufacturer: Lee & Low Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1584300612

Customer Reviews:

Family Unity.......2007-07-02

Seventy-five dollars seem like a fortune to one family, until Mama get a revelation to sell sweet potato
pies at the Harvest Convention. The family unite using their individual skills. Mama's sweet potato pies leave the town people begging for more of the now famous sweet potato pies. The family discover the secret to success is family unity and Mama's sweet potato pies.

A book to share again and again and again..........2003-12-14

What a treat! A delightfully written, beautifully illustrated treasure that will hold a special place on my bookshelf for many years to come. I've already read it to two of my grandchildren, and very successfully used it in a tutoring session with an older child. This lovingly crafted story of love, determination, and family provided a springboard to discussion with my student that proved enlightening for both of us. He has even asked to read it again next session. Bravo, Kathleen Linsey! When can we expect the next?

Appeals to All.......2003-12-01

As a former grammar school librarian, I highly recommend Sweet Potato Pie by Kathleen D.Lindsey. This book can be used as a
springboard to discussions about families and problem solving.
I would also recommend it as a gift for a favorite child. The illustrations are a wonderful compliment to the story. I tried the recipe for the pie crust and got rave reviews at Thanksgiving. Get it - you'll be glad you did!!

Fantastic.......2003-11-26

Sweet Potato Pie is a wonderful book. I have bought one for every child in my family. This book will make you laugh, cry and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The story is very heartwarming and fun. I recommned this book to everyone. The illustrations will make you want to read the book over and over again. Thank you Kathleen Lindsey for writing this wonderful book!

Sweet Potato Pie.......2003-11-21

Kathleen Lindsey has written a wonderful book that captures the spirit of family love and unity. I have purchased four books and I've given three to family members as gifts. The artwork is excellent and beautifully captures the story. You will love how Sadie, the narrator, tells a heartwarming story of a family uniting together to save their farm. "Sweet Potato Pie" is a sweet story written by a talented author.

Average customer rating:

Fairly accurate portrayal of life in the fields
A very good politically 'incorrect' book.
Working Cotton
The life of a child in a migrant family.
A Moving Depiction of Migrant Labor

Working Cotton (Caldecott Honor Book)
Sherley Anne Williams
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0152996249

Book Description

This child’s view of the long day’s work in the cotton fields, simply expressed in a poet’s resonant language, is a fresh and stirring look at migrant family life. “With its restrained poetic text and impressionist paintings, this is a picture book for older readers, too.”--Booklist

Customer Reviews:

Fairly accurate portrayal of life in the fields.......2002-03-18

I read this book as part of an assignment. It is a Caldecott Honor Book and I am very familiar with picking cotton. I was born the daughter of a cotton share-cropper, so my earliest memories are some of the very same things that appear in this book.

Cotton picking by hand is hard. It is backbreaking, and the days are hot and long. However, I had a few concerns about this book. It is written in the local dialect and speech patterns of the Black child who is telling the story. It was rather difficult to read but easy to understand what she meant. Since this is a child's book, I am not certain that every child would understand the language system that is portrayed. A teacher needs to be completely aware and ready to explain the dialect.

Also, even though the child describes a typical day of cotton picking, hard, hot, long,and lonely for socialization, I do wish the fact had been brought out that other ethnicities picked cotton as well as Blacks. It is hard work no matter who picks the cotton.

The illustrations were done nicely and the family structure was portrayed as intact. However, it reminded me all too well of the long, hot days my family spent in the cotton fields.

A very good politically 'incorrect' book........2000-12-12

Some books that I read do not catch my eye right away, but this one caught my eye for a couple of reasons. For one, this book reminded me of the stories that my grandmother used to tell me about when she would be in the fields picking cotton. Two, this book does not make picking cotton sound like a bad thing at all. When my grandmother would tell me stories about being in the cotton fields, the stories would never sound bad, or harsh. Her stories made me want to pick up this book and read it. This book is about a little girl named Shelan who goes to the fields every morning to go pick cotton with her family. Her family consists of her father, mother, her two older sisters, and her baby sister Leanne, who her mother has to carry while she picks cotton. The story is told through Shelan's eyes, from the time that they get on the bus at dawn, to the time they leave the fields at sunset. The illustrations were as vivid as the little girl telling the story. The pictures were hazy, just like a very hot day, where there are no trees. I thought that was very symbolic. I liked this book a lot, for different reasons. But I do have one or two concerns about this book. For one, the book may not be suitable to teach to just "any" child. I think that a children's book is supposed to move at a comfortable pace. Not make the child think too hard, but just enough to spark some creative ideas. Every child is not going to be able to relate to this book, like others would. To make it plain, I do not think that a Black child would have as much trouble understanding this book, as opposed to children of other ethnicities. I (a Black male) understood the dialect in this book very well and I enjoyed reading the "broken language" because that was what I was used to as a child. I did not think twice about the dialect until I had to analyze it. After I read the whole thing, I wondered if children of other backgrounds would be able to understand this book. The author was not trying to think "politically correct," but rather, correct in the eyes of the little girl. Shelan doesn't know any better than to talk the way that she does. Just like any little child does not recognize their "grammatical speaking errors." I think that whoever is going to read this book to a class of little children should be conscious of what children they are reading it to. The makeup of the class who receives this book is very important. Just like Nappy Hair, this book is very real as far as language and vivid images are concerned. This book is very good nevertheless, and hearing a great storyteller tell this story would be a treat to the senses.

Working Cotton.......2000-04-21

The Caldecott Medal book that I chose to read for this assignment was called Working Cotton. It is about an African American family's daily work picking cotton from the fields. Williams incorporates a good deal of African American culture into the story. Her familiarity with the dialect allows for the story to be portrayed in a very realistic way. The story is written in the third person as a young girl details her and her family's daily routine of getting up at dawn and riding a bus to the cotton fields where she, her brothers, and her father picked cotton. All the while, the mother sat along side of the field and tended to their new infant child. What makes this book unique is that it is written in a dialect that is very much expected from a less educated population. Williams uses this dialect effectively to bring the story to life. Miriam Youngerman's 1994 article in Children's Literature Association Quarterly Touches on the importance of dialect in children's books. "The dialect is a large part of the storytelling. Any children's story with a setting of a different time and place should be frelected in the dialect and the dialogue of the story" (241). As it relates to Working Cotton it is the dialect that truly makes the story convincing. Another strong aspect of this book are Carole Byard's detailed illustrations. These drawings do a great job of depicting the strain and hardships that cotton pickers dealt with on a daily basis. Every picture clearly illustrates the feelings and emotions of the characters. The illustrations take up entirely both sides of every page while the text is written on top of them. Overall, I think that this story is a strong cultural story for children to read. I believe that it is important to for children to understand the importance of hard work and willingness to help. Too many children are growing up expecting to always be taken care of. My generation is very guilty of this. Books like Working Cotton, though too remedial for adults, can go a long way to establishing an appreciation for hard work and good literature.

The life of a child in a migrant family........1999-06-02

A children's book based on a book of poems by Sherley Anne Williams that first appeared in the mid-1970s. It is about a migrant family (in this case, an African-American family) who are bused from one cotton field to another to pick cotton in which the children have to help. The book is really an indictment against child labor. It shows the hardships of this life, how important the "family" is, how tired and exhausted everyone (especially children) are at the end of the day, and how much children miss playing with other children. Reading the book with other children should lead to some fruitful discussions. It is beautifully written and illustrated. The illustrator was Carole Byard and the book was a 1993 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.

A Moving Depiction of Migrant Labor.......1998-10-30

Working Cotton is a very moving look at a little girl, Shelan, and her daily life of working the cotton fields. It realistically brings to life the hardships that she and her family face, through sparse prose and impressionistic artwork, the reader feels the burden of the cotton sack upon their back. I almost cried reading it, knowing that for many children in the United States and worldwide this type of work is typical and expected to help the survival of the family. Its a good book to share with children to help them not take for granted the life that they lead. And its also a great way to show that not every story has a happy ending, just an ending.

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