Aunt Claire's Yellow Beehive Hair

( 2 )

Overview

Annie longs to know more about her family. One rainy day, Grandma Marilyn takes out dusty photos, faded letters, and a fragile wedding bouquet while telling the stories that bind them together. Annie learns that her Aunt Claire was famous for the beauty creams she created in her kitchen and that an uncle won a medal in the war. Connected to her past, Annie creates a special scrapbook with room at the end to add to as her family grows.

A girl, seeking her connection ...

See more details below
Hardcover
$14.08
BN.com price
(Save 17%)$16.99 List Price
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up In Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Other sellers (Hardcover)
  • All (16) from $8.35   
  • New (7) from $10.55   
  • Used (9) from $8.35   
Note: Kids' Club Eligible. See More Details.
Sending request ...

More About This Book

Overview

Annie longs to know more about her family. One rainy day, Grandma Marilyn takes out dusty photos, faded letters, and a fragile wedding bouquet while telling the stories that bind them together. Annie learns that her Aunt Claire was famous for the beauty creams she created in her kitchen and that an uncle won a medal in the war. Connected to her past, Annie creates a special scrapbook with room at the end to add to as her family grows.

A girl, seeking her connection to family past and present, creates a special book in tribute and remembrance, leaving blank pages for future memories.

Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This volume is not so much about Aunt Claire or her hair as it is about the telling details that set each of young Annie's family members apart. Annie longs to know about her ancestors: "I want to reach into the past and bring them closer to me." With the help of her great-aunt, she does just that, sorting through photographs as well as such memorabilia as yellowed letters with faded handwriting and the lace wedding veil worn by her Swedish Great-Grandma Sophie. GrandPr (Pockets) effortlessly breathes life into these snippets of lives well lived. For instance, in a sepia-toned photograph, dashing Great-Grandpa Louis, who bet on horses, looks flirtatiously over at his wife, conveyed in a dreamy, smoky-blue image on the opposite page, who clearly returns his affection: "Great-Grandma Sadie stayed home/ and sewed tiny silver sequins onto dresses/ and baked twisted breads/ to make back the money/ that Great-Grandpa Louis lost." Blumenthal (The Chocolate-Covered-Cookie Tantrum) and GrandPr create an anecdotal album within an album, making bygone times shine brightly for both the heroine and readers. The artist (best known for the cover art and interior spots for the Harry Potter novels) whimsically mingles images of past and present in radiant pastel paintings, which range from comical to affecting. A family portrait to savor, this may well spark kids' interest in their own family trees. Ages 5-up. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
This lovingly written picture book is a tribute to the extended family (and to scrapbooking). Young Annie loves it when the whole family gets together to eat and ends up reminiscing. One rainy day, she and Grandma Marilyn decide to make the reminiscing official, and they gather together memorabilia to use as props for fueling their memories. The memories they share are a realistic assortment of everyday, bombastic, sad, happy and bittersweet memories. The family characters are equally holistically portrayed. This is a beautiful book, warmly illustrated by the illustrator of many other picture books and the Harry Potter books. It is a tribute to the past and an acknowledgement of the past as a bridge to the future. A book for families to read together. 2001, Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Putnam, $15.99. Ages 6 up. Reviewer: Judy Katsh
School Library Journal
K-Gr 3-When her extended family gathers for meals, young Annie hears the stories about the people in the old photos on her grandmother's mantel, but she wants to know more. So, one rainy afternoon, as she and her grandmother collect pictures and other memorabilia for a family-history album, Annie learns about Aunt Claire's hair and Uncle Charlie's habit of pinching cheeks. The album commemorates lots of proud moments and not a few skeletons, happy times and sad. It will keep the past alive, and, with blank pages, has room for the future. The vignettes have an old-fashioned quality, and even the way Annie lives seems of the past, when whole families gathered for Sunday suppers and an aunt lived across the street. Annie's voice is sometimes jarringly adult but, all in all, the story rings true. GrandPr 's signature pastel illustrations reveal family stories in warm sepia tones and Annie and her contemporaries in full color. An especially appealing page shows Uncle Charlie reaching out of a black-and-white photo to give Annie one of his famous pinches; here, part of his face is in color, as are an arm and a hand. Warm and nostalgic, this story might inspire oral-history research among young readers.-Jeanne Clancy Watkins, Chester County Library, Exton, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A child catches glimpses of her family's past in what they've left behind in this richly sentimental portrait gallery. After rummaging through "shoe boxes, dusty albums, old straw baskets, and the backs of drawers" one rainy afternoon, Annie sits with her grandma and great aunt to hear the stories behind what she's found: old stamps and letters; pictures of men, women, and babies in antique dress; the hair ribbon Aunt Claire wore as she cooked up homemade face cream and lipstick to sell; Great-Grandma Sophie's wedding veil; photos of soldiers, some of whom never came back. As Annie assembles the memorabilia into an album, adding explanatory one-liners like "Harry's dark eyes broke women's hearts," or "Stella's holiday dinners kept the family together," GrandPré moves the point of view closer and closer in her creamy, luminous pastels, until the people begin to lean out past the edges of their snapshots, coming to life in Annie's mind. In its diversity—one ancestor came from Sweden, at least one other could be African-American, and Grandma makes a reference to the Kaddish at the end—Annie's family can stand for anyone's. The strength of Annie's urge to create connections with previous generations may kindle a similar interest in young readers—outweighing poor design that has allowed text on some pages to vanish into the gutter. (Picture book. 7-9)
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781589804913
  • Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 9/15/2007
  • Pages: 32
  • Sales rank: 338,862
  • Age range: 4 - 8 Years
  • Product dimensions: 8.50 (w) x 11.00 (h) x 0.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Deborah Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of two BookSense 76 winners, including Aunt Claire’s Yellow Beehive Hair. She worked as a home design columnist for New York’s Newsday, and her stories have appeared in national magazines such as The Washington Post, Family Circle, and Cosmopolitan. A native New Yorker, Blumenthal now lives in Houston, Texas, and works as a full-time writer.
Read More Show Less

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 5
( 2 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(2)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
Sort by: Showing all of 7 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 10, 2007

    A reviewer

    my daughter checked this out from the library and so i thought i would read it and was completely suprised at how good the book is and its message. my husband noticed it is the same ill. that did the harry potter books

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted June 20, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 29, 2008

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 6, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 6, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 2, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 2, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 7 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)