A Chair for My Mother
Williams, Vera. B. (1982). A chair for my mother. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
This picture was obtained from: http://www.alywilliams.com/blog/
“Sometimes mama is laughing when she comes home from work. Sometimes she’s so tired she falls asleep while I count the money out into piles. Some days she has lots of tips. Some days she has only a little. Then she looks worried. But each evening every single shiny coin goes into the jar.”
-page 6 from A Chair for my Mother by Vera Williams
A Little about the Book:
First, it needs to be noted that A Chair for my Mother is a Caldecott Honor book. The story is about a young girl whose desire is to purchase a chair, to replace the furniture lost in a previous house fire, for her mother to relax in after waitressing. When the girl’s mother comes home from work the girl and mother count out the tip money the mother received for the day and deposit some into a jar. The child’s Grandmother also contributes money to the fund. When the jar is full, the girl and her mother go to the bank and exchange the money for ten-dollar bills, which they then use to purchase a comfortable flower patterned chair.
The Illustrations:
The illustrations resemble ones, which a child would draw and color. In each picture, a story is being told, and the reader is captivated by the bright colors used.
Themes:
· Helping out someone in need
· Working together to accomplish a goal
· The love of a family
Age Level:
The story would appeal to a child between the ages of 5-8. I would recommend the book for a child in Grade 2-3 to read by them self.
Personal Response:
I felt the story was decent. The story itself was not over engaging. I must admit there was a great underlying message to the story about how working together can help achieve a goal. I also appreciated how it did include not only the daughter, mother and grandmother helping make the mother’s life better, but also the community working together to help re-establish a household for the family after their previous one burnt down. I do recommend others to read the book.
Teacher Ideas and Links:
This book would be great to use for Character Education. The following is a list of websites, which teachers could use in correspondence with this book.
This website provides activities teachers can use with this book. The activities focus on language arts and math.
This website provides resources to use A Chair for my Mother as a whole unit. There are activities available to use the book as a focus in Science, Social, Language Arts, Math, Art, and Bible studies. A list of possible field trips is also included on this website!
Listen to the Story Here:
A Reading of A Chair for my Mother on youtube
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