Ma Dear's Aprons: with audio recording

by Patricia C. McKissack, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Overview

Newbery Honor author Patricia McKissack and Coretta Scott King Award–winning illustrator Floyd Cooper lovingly recreate a slice of turn-of-the-century Southern life for a single black mother and her son in this sweet picture book.

Little David Earl always knows what day of the week it is. He can tell by the clean, snappy-fresh apron Ma Dear is wearing, a different color for every day.

Monday means washing, with Ma Dear scrubbing at her tub in a blue apron. Tuesday is ironing, in a sunshine yellow apron that brightens Ma’s spirits. And so it goes until Sunday, when Ma Dear doesn’t have to wear an apron and they can set aside some special no-work time, just for themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481418980
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/22/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD800L (what's this?)
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Patricia C. McKissack is the author of many highly acclaimed books for children, including Goin' Someplace Special, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; The Honest-to-Goodness Truth; Let My People Go, written with her husband, Fredrick, and recipient of the NAACP Image Award; The Dark-Thirty, a Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award winner; and Mirandy and Brother Wind, recipient of the Caldecott Medal and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Floyd Cooper received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in The Blacker the Berry and a Coretta Scott King Honor for his illustrations in Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, Meet Danitra Brown, and I Have Heard of a Land. Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Cooper received a degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma and, after graduating, worked as an artist for a major greeting card company. In 1984, he came to New York City to pursue a career as an illustrator of books and now lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, with his wife and children.

Editorial Reviews

McKissack's story looks at a week in the life of a turn-of- the-century African-American boy and his mother. David Earl identifies the days of the week by the color of Ma Dear's apron: Among them, Monday's is blue, with a long pocket harboring clothespins for her ironing work; a cheerful pink one for visiting the sick and shut-in on Thursday; Saturday's apron is flowered, signaling the day she sells pies at the railroad station. Sunday, blessedly, is apron-free, a "no-work day," David Earl reminds her. With the aid of Cooper's paintings, McKissack gives real bite to the life of domestic workers 100 years back. This isn't a candy- coated mother-son relationship—Ma Dear is just as quick to tell David Earl "no more buts, and stop whining," as she is to bestow a hug. But there's love here, cast over David Earl's life with the same uncompromising grace Ma Dear brings to all things in their lives.

Kirkus Reviews