Aunt Minnie McGranahan [Hardcover]

Mary Skillings Prigger (Author), Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

When Aunt Minnie McGranahan inherits nine orphaned nephews and nieces, the neighbors think it will never work. Aunt Minnie is small and tidy, and she lives alone in a neat little house. She has a neat little garden and a neat little barn, and she has a system for everything. Certainly there's no place in her life for children. But Aunt Minnie is a problem solver, and she surprises everyone by bringing home all nine children and coming up with clever new systems to accommodate her expanded family. It turns out Aunt Minnie likes children after all! This funny, fresh story, told in verse and accompanied by whimsical watercolors, is based on the life of the real Aunt Minnie, a member of the author's family who adopted nine children in 1920.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on debut author Prigger's family history, this tale of an elderly spinster who inherits nine children overflows with energy, affection and humor. The epitome of tidiness, Aunt Minnie has a "system" for maintaining order in her neat little world. "It's lucky she has no children," her neighbors cluck. "Children might interfere with Minnie's system." But when she receives a telegram informing her that her nine nieces and nephews have been orphaned ("Some of them were triplets. Some of them were twins"), Minnie rises to the occasion with aplomb. True to her nature, she devises a series of systems. For trips to the "johnny house," Minnie counsels, "Stand in line, wait your turn, and help with buttons"; for hugs, "The oldest hugged the youngest. The ones in the middle hugged each other. And Aunt Minnie hugged them all." In a dexterous style, Prigger employs repetitive elements to establish and maintain a spry tempo in clipped, spruce sentences; the brisk diction is a reflection of the main character herself. The black outlines of Lewin's (Snake Alley Band) witty, loose watercolors punctuate the pages in a flurry of scribbles, suggesting the kind of bursting-at-the-seams activity typical of a large family and counteracting any hint of Minnie's rigidity with fluid, personable characterizations. Period detail, from Aunt Minnie's Model T to her woodstove and water pump, adds nostalgic charm to this winning family portrait. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Aunt Minnie McGranahan, a small and tidy woman, has a system for everything from cleaning her neat house to caring for her cows and chickens. When she takes in nine orphaned nieces and nephews, she ignores the townspeople of St. Clere, KS, who mumble that she knows nothing about raising children. However, competent Aunt Minnie has her own system: "The oldest looked after the youngest. The ones in the middle looked after each other. And Aunt Minnie looked after them all." From helping with household chores, bathing, using the johnny house, square dancing in the evenings, and hugging before bed at night, the youngsters learn to care for themselves, others, and the world around them, all the time knowing that Aunt Minnie cares for them all. Set in the 1920s, Lewin's illustrations are imbued with down-home charm. Simple, bold, black lines skillfully express emotion and the watercolor pastel hues are as cheery as a cherished family quilt. Design elements unite the text and pictures. Prigger successfully creates a sense of time and place, and readers will be especially touched by Aunt Minnie's system of making work appear lighter by allowing for fun and the family's good-night system of dancing and bedtime hugs.
Shawn Brommer, Southern Tier Library System, Painted Post, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (March 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039582270X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395822708
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,784,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Silly and touching...Children of all ages will love it!, May 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aunt Minnie McGranahan (Hardcover)

Aunt Minnie lives by herself. She has her own system of doing things. Suddenly, she must take in her orphaned nieces and nephews. Aunt Minnie is able to tame this brood with her system. A system that is silly and touching at the same time. This book would be a great gift for a favorite aunt.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aunt Minnie McGranahan, November 25, 2005

By 

Barbara A. Abitz (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aunt Minnie McGranahan (Paperback)

My family enjoyed the book very much. We live right across the road from where the General Store use to be in St. Clere, Kansas and are familiar with the McGranahan family. My kids are 32, 28 and 17 years old. We knew four of the nine children that Aunt Minnie raised, so this made the books more interesting. We also enjoyed Aunt Minnie and the Twister. Both books made very interesting Christmas presents for kids. Keep the stories coming.
Barbara A. Abitz (address Emmett, Kansas but our hearts say we're from St. Clere, Kansas)

4.0 out of 5 stars Nieces love this one, but it makes me cry, February 16, 2008

By 

Ulyyf "Connie" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aunt Minnie McGranahan (Paperback)

This is just what you expect, a sweet story about a woman with her huge passel of inherited kids. My nieces love the story, and request it often, but every time I get to the part where nobody has to wait for a hug, I start tearing up. And they fall once I find out that *sniff* every kid comes back with their family to visit when they're grown-up.

Oh well. It's the happy kind of tears, anyway.