A Chair For My Mother Analysis

The children’s book I choose to critique was A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams. This paper will discuss the summary and the culture of the book. Does this book accurately portray a culture and would I recommend this book for teachers to read in their classrooms? These are questions that will be answered throughout the paper. The genre of this book is children’s literature and can be seen as a realistic fiction book. The age range for this book is from 4-8 years old. The author wrote and illustrated the book with a folk-art inspired painting. The book was written in 1982 and was published by Harper Collins Publishers. This book won the Caldecott Medal. The author wrote about a young girl who tells a story how her mother received s new chair. The story starts with showing how the young girl’s mom is a hard worker at a diner and sometimes the young girl works at the diner and gets paid. The young girl lives with her mom and grandma. She then explained why they saved money for a chair for her mother. The year before their house caught on fire and they had to move into an apartment building. Even though this was a tragedy …show more content…
There are many lessons in this book that is beneficial for children to learn and understand today. I believe many children can relate to this book as there are many families with one parent especially in urban communities. The book had an age range for 4-8 years old. I would recommend this book for 1st and 2nd graders between the ages of 6-8 years old. Vera B. Williams was born to immigrant parents and experience what it felt like to live in a single parent home. The author is White but she lived in an urban community among many different races. She died at the age of 88. I personally enjoyed this book. The story, theme, colors, illustration and the realistic concepts are excellent in this book. Many individuals including, I can relate to this