Momma, Where Are You From?
By: Marie Bradby
Illustrated by: Chris Soentpiet
This story starts off with a little girl and her mother sitting in their kitchen. The little girl asks, "Momma, where are you from? Where are you from, Momma?" Momma explains to her daughter that she is from all the chores she did on a Monday. She explains she is from all the different food she had for dinner. Momma told the little girl she was from giving away her old clothes and ice chips on a hot summer day. THen the little girl asks, "Momma, where is that place? Where is that place, Momma?" The mother tells her little girl that this place is where the town meets the countryside. It's where the bus took Momma's brothers and sisters to school. She explained its where the gum ball tree took up the sky and where she "wondered why Miss Mary cleaned someone else's house". She told her it's where chores took up the entire afternoon. It was where Friday evenings were taken up by fried fish and cherry pie with ice cream. It was where they played games and listened to ball games on the radio. The story finishes up with the little girl asking her mother, "Momma, can I go there? Can I go there Momma?" Here mother responds by saying she will take her daughter down the roads of her memory.
I really enjoyed this story and found it very easy to connect to. I used to love sitting around the dinner table with my family, listening to stories my parents told about their childhood. It always seemed so different from my childhood. It seemed the most different when they talked about money. I also liked hearing about how and where my grandparents grew up. I feel like this story is one that most people could easily relate to.
This would be a fun story to incorporate into the classroom. You could read this story to the class, have them go home and talk to their parents about about their childhood, and then have the kids right about what their parents told them. When they come back to class after these interviews, the kids could share in small groups about where their parents are from.
What a cute book! I agree it is really relatable. I love the idea of learning from other generations, it gives a whole new perspective on history that you can't always learn in class.
ReplyDeleteIt would be cool to learn about different eras when the students share their interview; especially because parents and guardians of students are all different ages.
I think this is a great book, especially when it comes to talking about history.
ReplyDeleteI think that sometimes history, especially when it comes to slavery and separation of blacks and whites is a taboo subject in elementary schools, and it's difficult to talk about without feeling like you are over compensating for something.
When great kids books are written about a hard subject it makes it easier on the teacher to present it, and I think this is one of those good books. It brings up a difficult subject in a clever and almost cute way, it presents the information without drawing it out, and it has amazing pictures to complement the story.
I loved this book and that you picked it, and I would definitely use this in my classroom in a history unit!
This sounds like a really cute book! I think that most children like hearing stories of their parents past! I know it always interested me as a kid. It is a great idea to use this book in conjunction with civil rights and making it easy for children to understand. Good find Loren!
ReplyDeleteI think the best stories are the ones that you hear from family members. I loved hearing the stories my grandparents hold over and over again. I loved hearing about their lives what they went through. I think when stories are that personal you carry them with you so that you can tell your children and grandchildren about what type of people they come from. I think those types of personal stories are the most important and I feel that story telling is an art that is being lost.
ReplyDeleteI loved hearing the stories that my grandmother would tell me. I love the fact that this book allows students to view another way of life completely. From the fact that the mama had some hard chores but also had fun, work ethic's seem to be big in this book without saying anything specific to it. Thank you once agian for bringing another amazing multi-cultural book.
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