A Chair for Always [Hardcover]

Vera B. Williams (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009 | Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

There are some things that Rosa just knows. She knows that she can't wait to meet her new baby cousin, due to be born at any minute right upstairs. She knows that she will grow up and move away and maybe go to college, and perhaps even become the president of the United States. And she knows that the chair—that wonderful, beautiful, beloved chair, the chair for her mother—will always be there.

Always.

Just the way it is. Covered in velvet with roses all over it, ready for who-knows-what new adventure . . .

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 2–4—In her fourth book about Rosa, Williams once again devises a tale filled with warmth and vitality. With Aunt Ida and Uncle Sandy living upstairs, the girl welcomes their newborn into the family. She participates in caring for Benji, and even plans for the fun they will have as he grows older. The story's central focus, however, is Rosa's beloved, velvet-rose-covered chair. Grandma suggests that the worn and stained fabric needs replacing, and her mother mentions buying a new one. Rosa puts down her foot. "Don't you even care about history?" she responds, reminding her mother how they bought the chair with saved dimes and quarters, and how it is now a part of the family. Even if she becomes president and moves to the White House, Rosa claims, the chair will go too. Her mother hugs her and replies, "Rosa, you sure do say the strangest things." Rich watercolor illustrations featuring the child and her extended family give a comfortable feeling to this heartfelt tale. In this national economic turndown, a story that emphasizes sharing with family and friends and realizing what is important in everyday life will be a welcome choice, and children who have loved Rosa before will find this book equally appealing—Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“A tale filled with warmth and vitality…In this national economic turndown, a story that emphasizes sharing with family and friends and realizing what is important in everyday life will be a welcome choice, and children who have loved Rosa before will find this book equally appealing.” (School Library Journal (starred review) )

“Soft, brightly colored gouache art…affectingly captures the close bond among family members as they celebrate a new arrival and an old friend: Rosa’s treasured chair. The bustling scenes of family life that stuff the pages of this warm intergenerational story should prove irresistible.” (Publishers Weekly )

“The ingenuous text captures Rosa’s excitement…[and] Williams’s inimitable gouache illustrations personalize the family members in this very satisfying tale.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061722790
• ISBN-13: 978-0061722790
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 10 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #672,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vera B. Williams lives in New York City.

In Her Own Words..."Throughout my childhood I was encouraged to make pictures, tell stories, act, and dance--all of this at a heaven in our New York City neighborhood called the Bronx House.

"Saturdays I painted with a crusading art director, Florence Cane. In her book The Growth of the Child Through Art, I appear under the name Linda. I was sixteen when the book appeared and embarrassed by it. But at age nine I had been totally proud when a painting of mine was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and I was later shown in the Movietone News explaining to Eleanor Roosevelt its Yiddish title, "Yentas."

"In 1945 I went to Black Mountain College in North Carolina, a unique educational community. I graduated in 1949 in graphic art, which I studied with Josef Albers. Along the way I planted corn, made butter, worked on the printing press, and helped to build the house in which I lived with Paul Williams, a fellow student I married there.

"I wanted that connection of art and community to continue. And it did at the Gate Hill Cooperative, a community we built with other Black Mountain people, a poet, musicians, and potters. I lived and worked there from 1953-1970 (after which I moved to Canada). My children (Sarah, Jenny, Merce) grew up there. For them, we branched out into a school, part of the Surnmerhill movement. The gingerbread houses that led to my first book for Greenwillow I first made in sticky variety at our school. I have always liked to teach and have taught art, cooking, writing, nature study, for nursery age on.

"At forty-six, no longer married, living in a houseboat on the bay at Vancouver, British Columbia, I did my first book. But before that could happen, the fates decreed a stint of cooking and running a bakery at a small school in the Ontario countryside. My love affair with Canada included also a 500-mile trip on the Yukon River. Many of those adventures I put in Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe.

"I also write and draw for adults-short stories, leaflets, and posters. As a lover of children, I try to do what I can to help save their earth from nuclear disaster. This pursuit, too, has added its excitement to my biography, including, in 1981, a month's stay in the federal penitentiary in Alderson, West Virginia (an outcome of a women's peaceful blockade of the Pentagon). Perhaps this experience will some day appear in one of my books. So far I've found children's books a wonderfully accommodating medium where any of my various activities might pop up."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a heartwarming tale about the importance of family togetherness and love!, September 19, 2009

By 

D. Fowler "Dragonfly77" (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Chair for Always (Hardcover)

Rosa and her grandmother were cuddled up in the oversized chair covered with a flowery pattern. Her mother worked at the Blue Tile Diner and it was going to be another late night, but her grandmother insisted she head for her own bed to get a little sleep. Early in the morning she rose and went into her mother's room to sneak into bed with her when a commotion began upstairs. The phone rang and her mother sprang up from her bed and BOP flew right into Rosa. When she asked if anything was wrong, her mother said "Aunt Ida's baby is starting to get born." Rosa was not allowed to go, but had to call the diner when the alarm rang and tell them her mother needed to help her sister birth the baby at home.

Rosa was restless, sleeping off and on. She dreamed of her band, the Oak Street Band and how her new cousin would join in as a guitar player. She heard the midwife ring the doorbell. The family wanted the "baby born in the midst of her family, in her own house." Rosa made the call and then began waiting for the baby. She headed for the "lucky chair" to sit and imagine things about the new baby boy that was coming. After a while her mama came to pull her out of her dreams and up the stairs to visit the new baby. They needed a nice place to hold the baby and mama was thinking of buying a new chair. What do you think Rosa thought about replacing that special chair?

I loved this heartwarming tale and thought it was the most exceptional story of family love that I'd read in some time. Everyone in Rosa's family had a special place in each other's heart and they were all excited to add another special little man to their family. I loved the way the story unfolded and the artwork was charming. Each page looked like something out of a photo album. Some pages had little drawings of activities in and around the house along its edges. This is a story of "family" that would be wonderful to read in your big, ugly overstuffed chair . . . if you have one!