Williams, V. (1982). A Chair for My Mother. New York NY: Greenwillow Books.

Brief Annotation: This story is about a little girl and her mother and grandmother who, after loosing everything in a fire, slowly acquire everything they need to make their new apartment a home. A year after the fire,, the only thing they are missing is a soft cozy chair for relaxing, so they fill a jar full of loose change until they finally save up enough money to buy a chair. It has a great message about family and community.

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Grade Level:Pre-K - 2
Readers who will like this: Readers who enjoy brightly colored pictures and detailed borders. Children who are learning to save up their money.
Response/Rating (1-4): **** This is a great book with a wonderful message. I love the artwork and bordering details. I love how the whole neighborhood chips in to help this family after the fire. I think this would be a fun story to read to students who were learning about counting change and about how change makes up dollars. It would be fun to pair this with a math lesson.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Have you ever saved up your money to buy something you really wanted? Have you ever saved up to buy something for someone else?
Reading strategies connection:
This book would pair well with a Sketch to Stretch strategy (Tompkins). This strategy has the class read the story and share a discussion of the major themes in the book. Students then draw out what the story means to them; what they feel the main idea or message is. This works well with A Chair for My Mother because there are so many different messages students can take away from this book—the importance of a community to support its neighbors, the value of saving up, the joy of making someone else’s day a little easier. The fun and engaging pictures in the story will get the kids excited about this visual learning strategy and the messages of the text will offer a number of themes for students to connect with.