May'naise Sandwiches & Sunshine Tea

by Sandra Belton and Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Book Overview

Little Miss loves to look at Big Mama's scrapbook filled with ticket stubs, old flowers, and, best of all, wraparounds, a series of photographs that capture memories of family and family history, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0027090353
• ISBN13: 9780027090352
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Four Winds
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.3" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 4

Customer Reviews

A story about valuing who you are and togetherness overcoming economic differences

Big Mama is an older black woman with a scrapbook containing the mementoes of her youth and her granddaughter loves to look through it with her. Today, they are together on the bed looking through it and there are pictures of Big Mama and another girl named Bettie Jean playing together. Bettie Jean was a black girl from the upscale area of town with Big Mama was from an area on the lower end of the economic scale. Big Mama and Bettie Jean went to the same school and one day when young Big Mama's father was doing yard work in the upscale area, Bettie Jean called over from her house and asked Big Mama to come over and play. They enjoyed themselves immensely and when it came time for lunch, Bettie Jean's mother fixed them immense sandwiches with plenty of fixings. A short time later, Bettie Jean was over at Big Mama's more modest house playing and when it was time for lunch, there was very little in the way of special things. Therefore, the girls had may'naise sandwiches and sunshine tea. May'naise sandwiches were simply a layer of mayonnaise between two slices of bread and sunshine tea was nothing more than sugared water. Fortunately, Bettie Jean was fine with that and later that day, Big Mama's parents explained to her that it was the thought and companionship that made her day with Bettie Jean, not the price of the food they consumed. The story closes with Big Mama and her granddaughter going to the kitchen to fix a special lunch. Life is not equal in the socioeconomic sense, yet we can all be equal if we understand that it is appreciating each other for what we are that makes the world work harmoniously. Big Mama's parents were proud people who worked hard and held up their portion of the social structure. They instilled in their daughter a sense of joy in who she was and this story demonstrates how Big Mama was trying to pass those values along to her granddaughter. It is a delightful story.