Product Description

When I was nine or ten years old I couldn't wait for Saturdays. I got up early, dressed, and rolled my bicycle out of the garage. SO BEGINS AUTHOR Lester Laminack's poetic memory of the adult who made him feel incredibly special--his grandmother. Every Saturday, the narrator, a young boy, rides his bicycle up and down country roads past farms, a graveyard, and a filling station, until he reaches his beloved Mammaw's house. She is waiting for him. While she picks tomatoes, he pushes the lawnmower through the dew-wet grass. Afterwards, he always helps her make teacakes from scratch, breaking the eggs and stirring the batter. But the best part, he remembers, is eating the hot, sweet cakes fresh from the oven. Children will understand the special relationship of the narrator and his grandmother. Set in a small town in the Leave It to Beaver days of the mid-sixties, the story evokes a gentler and more innocent time and place. Young readers will almost hear the sounds of bicycle wheels on gravel and the criiick-craaack-criiick of a metal glider in Laminack's richly detailed prose. Award-winning illustrator Chris Soentpiet's images beautifully capture the relationship and the place, perfectly depicting the simplicity of an earlier time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75384 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781561453030
• Condition: USED - GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-Every Saturday morning, the young narrator pedals his bike through town, passing familiar landmarks like the bank and the gas station, until he reaches his grandmother's house. The two share a special day talking, doing chores, and finally baking and feasting on Mammaw's special teacakes. Drawing on his childhood in Heflin, AL, the author splendidly re-creates these nostalgic scenes, carefully bringing the memories to life by describing the sunny kitchen, the crunch of gravel under bicycle wheels, and the sweet aroma of the cakes. The brilliant watercolor paintings glow with light and idyllically capture the world of yesterday. Older readers may enjoy sharing this book with their grandparents, and teachers might incorporate it into lessons about writing descriptive memoirs.-Linda L. Walkins, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Brighton, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
PreS-Gr. 2. Illustrator Soentpiet notes that his model is Norman Rockwell, and this picture book, set in rural Alabama in 1964, certainly evokes Rockwell's idyllic visions of family togetherness. It's Saturday, and everyone is smiling as a young white boy rides his bike through his small town and over the hills to his grandmother's house, where she sits on the sunlit porch: "She was waiting for me. No one else. Just me." Detailed watercolor pictures show the loving bond across generations as the boy mows the lawn in her bright garden, Grandma bakes him delicious teacakes in the kitchen, and together they listen to the calls of the blue jays around them. Most young children won't respond to the nostalgia and period detail, but the pictures are gorgeous, and the bond between child and grandparent is timeless. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Readers will have a hard time resisting this cover... The impeccably rendered paintings illustrate with astonishing historical accuracy... and capture the details of the time... The author crafted this as a tribute to a childhood tradition with his grandmother, to whom the book is dedicated; while not all of us had his childhood, filled with sunshine and smiles, this nostalgic look back offers up the childhood many of us wish we'd had." -Kirkus Reviews "Drawing on his childhood in Heflin, AL, the author splendidly recreates these nostalgic scenes, carefully bringing the memories to life by describing the sunny kitchen, the crunch of gravel under bicycle wheels, and the sweet aroma of the cakes. The brilliant watercolor paintings glow with light and idyllically capture the world of yesteryear." -School Library Journal "Illustrator Soentpiet notes that his model is Norman Rockwell, and this picture book, set in rural Alabama in 1964, certainly evokes Rockwell's idyllic visions of family togetherness... the pictures are gorgeous, and the bond between child and grandparent is timeless." -Booklist

Customer Reviews

A Gorgeous Trip Back to a Simplier time
This book is so well-illustrated that the pictures literally pop out at you on each page. It's not hard to imagine yourself in the scenes of a small town filling station or in grandma's kitchen complete with a red formica topped 1940s or 1950s dinette set and a vintage range. The artist admits that he was inspired by Norman Rockwell and his pictures show that influence.

The story is a gentle, nostalgic memory of a boy's visits to his grandmother's house. This book would make a great gift for a grandchild who shares this love of visiting grandma's house. It would also be a pleasant trip down memory lane for any babyboomer generation member.

Enjoyable story; great illustrations
This book is a particular favorite in our house - it reminds my husband of his grandmother. My kids (9yrs, 7yrs and 4yrs) have all enjoyed this book; the 4 year old says "pedal, pedal pedal" when he rides his bike.

Absolutely wonderful!
What a wonderful, gentle, gracious book for today's kids and tomorrow's. And what gorgeous illustrations! A book that truly belongs in a heritage library to be passed on from generation to generation!