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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Sheridan Public Library | J Pink (Lasky) | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Dallas Public Library | + PRESCHOOL - LASKY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
To Katie, it seems as if her mother has always been her mother, with her grocery lists, her purse full of bills to pay, and her boring, sensible shoes. But when her mother reveals that she once was a girl who bossed her little brother, wore firefighter boots to bed, and dreamed grand ballerina dreams, Katie realizes that she and her mother might be alike after all.
This humorous, warmhearted blend of past and present celebrates the special love mothers and daughters share.
Author Notes
Kathryn Lasky was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 24, 1944, and knew she wanted to be a writer from the time she was ten. She majored in English in college and after graduation wrote for various magazines and taught. Her first book, I Have Four Names for My Grandfather, was published while she was teaching.
She has written more than seventy books for children and young adults on everything from historical fiction to picture books and nonfiction books including the Dear America books and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. Many of her books are illustrated with photographs by her husband, Christopher Knight. She has received many awards for her titles including Sugaring Time which was a Newberry Honor Book; The Night Journey which won the National Jewish Book Award for Children; Pageant which was an ALA Notable Children's book; and Beyond the Burning Time which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. She has also received the Washington Post's Children's Book Guild Award for her contribution to children's nonfiction. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-A beautifully written, lovingly executed trip down memory lane. Sepia-toned endpapers at the beginning of the book introduce readers to a freckle-faced girl in pigtails; endpapers at the conclusion feature colorful images of her daughter at the same age, years later. In between, the quiet refrain-"I wasn't always your mother"-gently reminds readers of the child that this adult narrator used to be. Pham's watercolor, pen-and-ink, and collage illustrations use warm tones throughout, but rely primarily on soft shades of brown and tan for the mother's childhood memories and brighter, crisper hues for those of her as a grown woman with her daughter. This fond tribute to loving mothers and daughters everywhere promises to become a bedtime favorite.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"You know," says a woman, as she peers over her reading glasses with mock solemnity at her young daughter, "I wasn't always your mother." So begins this well-pitched proof that no mother was born yesterday. Subtly connecting the past and the present, Lasky's (Lunch Bunnies; She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!) baby-boomer narrator delivers a series of freewheeling reminiscences about best friends and pets, games and mischief, and beloved possessions. "I wasn't always your mother, who carries a purse full of bills to pay and wears shoes that won't hurt my feet," says Mother. "Once I was a little girl, who carried secret stuff in a green velvet bag and wanted a pair of bright red patent-leather shoes more than anything." Pham (Whose Shoes?) tints watercolor depictions of the mother's vignettes in sepia, but she understands that her readers may have little interest in the evocation of an era, and keeps a sharp focus on action. When Mother recalls fighting with her brother over a birthday cake's frosting roses, Pham frames the composition at a child's height and zeroes in on the siblings' self-righteous stances. Also acknowledging that the audience will ultimately want to know "What's in it for me?" Lasky's answer is just right: even as a girl, the mother "dreamed of having her own little girl to love." Ages 3-7. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
The refrain I wasn't always your motherà is scattered throughout this book in which a mother describes her younger, singing-and-dancing self to her school-age, noise-loving daughter. The book has a somewhat static, shapeless quality, but the details are well chosen, and the illustrations, in brown hues reminiscent of old photos, sharpen moments that border on sentimentality. From HORN BOOK Fall 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A delicious tale with loads of girl appeal is satisfying for mothers and daughters (and brothers) alike. A dark-haired, freckle-faced mom tells her blonde daughter how, before she was her mother, she had a best friend named Ruby, a dog named Eileen, and a mom who could suspend fruit in Jell-O. She and Ruby loved to make noise, singing while they skated down the sidewalk, or tap-dancing on garbage can lids. And she loved shoes, even wearing her favorite cowboy boots to cousin Sylvia's wedding. "I wasn't always your mother," letting her eat frosting roses off her birthday cake. When Mom was a girl, she told her brother that flowers were for girls so that she could eat the frosting roses off his birthday cake. She named her doll and her teddy bear and her velvet seal Katie, but now, "I am your mother, and you are my only Katie." Pham (Which Hat Is That?, 2002, etc.), whose rich, homey watercolors are as gemÜtlich as could be, has done wonderful things with the faces. Readers can see that honey-haired Katie closely resembles her golden-haired grandmother, and that all three generations have the same wide, bowed mouth. Mom-as-a-kid wears braids, as does her best friend Ruby, who is black, and the contrasts and likenesses between those two girls are adorable. Love, comfort, and joy spill from these pages in sweet waves. It will no doubt inspire lots of similar stories in its readers. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
PreS^-Gr. 2. In this sweet, honest slice of life, a mother talks to her daughter, recalling herself as a little girl (with a friend named Ruby and a brother named Freddy), a girl who put on a circus in her backyard and ate her mother's Jell-O. The mother assures her daughter that she was not always "the mother who tells you to shush when I'm on the telephone," and the accompanying picture shows the daughter, a boa around her neck, and her friends pretending to be singers. Another spread goes back in time to show the mother as a girl with her pal Ruby on a "starry, starry night" when they turned the garbage can lids upside down and tap-danced on them, "just to hear the rat-a-tat-tat bounce into the darkness." Adults may sense an almost melancholy dimension to the text, but that perception comes with age. Children will be charmed by the thought of mothers who were girls with exuberance and dreams much like their own. The watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations, bursting with real life and remembrance, celebrate the story. Conversations galore will spring from this. --Ilene Cooper