Big Mama
Record details
- ISBN: 0374306885 :
-
Physical Description:
1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 24 cm.
print - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | Billy Boyd likes living with his grandmother, Big Mama, because she can make a space capsule out of junk, joins in all kinds of games, and turns a trip for ice cream into an adventure. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Grandmothers Fiction |
Available copies
- 3 of 3 copies available at Bibliomation.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 3 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bentley Memorial Library - Bolton | E CRU (Text) | 33160087415181 | Easy Fiction | Available | - |
Edith Wheeler Memorial Library - Monroe | JE CRU (Text) | 34026082739397 | Juvenile Picture Book | Available | - |
Tolland Public Library | JE CRU (Text) | 34051084078339 | Marshall Anderson Book | Available | - |
Kirkus Review
Big Mama
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A slice of rural Americana from newcomer Crunk, with a robust cast of children of a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Big Mama, benefactress and protectress of a ragtag band of children, knows how to keep them amused on a shoestring. Her home, in what appears to be the hill country of the deep South, is the gathering spot for a half-dozen children'among them, an African-American, an Asian, and a boy in a wheelchair'who have the run of the place to live and learn. Meanwhile, Big Mama fashions spaceships out of banana crates and scrap lumber, plays firefly catch-and-release, squires the children to the ice cream parlor, and teaches them a sense of responsibility and civic pride, and a love of homeplace. There is a mellowness here that is tangible, as if a fond recollection of an intimate past is controlling Crunk's pen. The details are marvelously enhanced by Apple's bright colored-pencil illustrations, showing Big Mama as an exemplary force whose saving ethical clarity positively affects everyone within its radiant sphere of influence. (Picture book. 3-7)
The Horn Book Review
Big Mama
The Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Big Mama is everyone's favorite grandma, and all the neighborhood youngsters love to spend time with her. On special afternoons, she takes them to Woody's for ice cream, a leisurely outing where getting there and back is at least as wonderful as the treat itself. The imaginative, colored pencil illustrations capture the nostalgic flavor of small-town America in an earlier era. From HORN BOOK Fall 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
BookList Review
Big Mama
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Ages 4^-6. Inspired by neighbors in the western Kentucky community where Crunk grew up, this story features Big Mama, who brings up her orphaned grandson, Billy, and opens her heart and home to all his friends in the neighborhood. Big Mama encourages the kids' imaginations, joins in their games, makes them take responsibility for their mistakes, and turns a late-afternoon trip to the ice-cream stand into a memorable trek through town. They stop to help the good folk, hurry past the other folk, and walk home through the magical twilight. Apple's softly shaded drawings reflect the warmth of the text. Full of action and lively details, they include a boy with braces on his legs, sometimes in a wheelchair, who is just one of the gang. As the day fades into night, changes in light are subtly reflected in the well-drawn illustrations. There's a sense of musical rhythms underlying the broad sweep of each picture composition as well as the poses of individuals in the colorful double-page spreads. A quiet, satisfying picture book with a small-town setting and a big heart. --Carolyn Phelan
Publishers Weekly Review
Big Mama
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Big Mama welcomes the neighborhood children into her home and "lets us do everything" states the narrative. "Through both words and artwork, an affecting portrait emerges of small-town life in a bygone day," said PW. Ages 3-6. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
School Library Journal Review
Big Mama
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
PreS-Gr 1-Billy Boyd's grandmother is a favorite with the neighborhood children. They never have to worry about being too loud or too messy at Big Mama's house, and she never says they're acting silly if they speak backwards in intergalactic space code-in fact, she'll start speaking it herself. And when they accidentally break a neighbor's window during a dirt-clod fight, Big Mama goes along to help explain-even if she does make them mow the neighbor's yard for free all summer. Narrated in the voice of one of the neighborhood children, this gentle story is a sunny slice of small-town life. Details such as drive-in restaurants and large-finned cars set the story in an idealized past, but the immediacy of the characterization and the universality of the children's experience give the book a timeless flavor. Apple's softly lined illustrations match the tone of the text perfectly, and extend the story by introducing a cast of ethnically varied youngsters. This portrait of a woman with an infinite love for children will make kids wish they had their own "Big Mama."-Kathleen M. Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, Eldersburg, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.