Mama, I'll Give You the World [Hardcover]

Roni Schotter (Author), S. Saelig Gallagher (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

For one magical night, Luisa wants to make her single mother's worries disappear.

Every day after school Luisa goes to Walter's World of Beauty to watch her mama work-- cutting, coloring, and curling customer's hair, transforming them into the images of their dreams. Mama works hard and hardly ever smiles, but when she does, she is the prettiest flower in all the World. At the end of each day, she puts her tip money in a special envelopes for Luisa-- the envelope marked "college." She wants to give her daughter the world-- but Luisa has plans of her own. It's Mama's birthday and, for one night, she wants to make Mama smile... the way she smiles in an old photograph of her dancing at a place called Roseland. So Luisa transforms Walter's World of Beauty into Roseland, by decorating it with roses and collages of Mama's customers, who are also in on Luisa's secret. And it isn't long before everyone is happily dancing, especially Mama, who is the happiest of all.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 3–After school each afternoon, Luisas bus drops her at the door to the World. Walters World of Beauty that is, where her mother is a stylist, saving tips so she can give her daughter the world in the form of college funds. While the woman works, Luisa cuts and colors and curls delightful mixed-media portraits of the customers and plans a surprise birthday party for her beloved parent. A photo at mamas station, taken in the past, reveals a joyful, dancing couple in a place mama calls Roseland. It is this mood and setting that Luisa yearns to re-create as she exchanges secret messages with the clientele. Schotters nimble use of alliteration and words with multiple meanings adds depth and richness to the text. The characters are quirky and distinctive, captured in all their glory by Gallaghers dynamic oils. Mama, a life-giving force, is clad in a warm green dress, framed by plants. The cool twilight hues bathing the city streets contrast with the golden glow of the after-hours salon party, where hopeful anticipation yields to an appreciative maternal clasp–and dancing ensues. Matter-of-fact about the realities of life with and as a single parent, while mindful of the benefits of participating in a larger community, this tale of a hardworking mother and a thoughtful daughter brings to mind the family in Vera B. Williamss A Chair for My Mother (HarperCollins, 1982). These are scenes to savor, snuggled closely one-on-one, or shared with a group.–Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 1-3. Gallagher's bright-eyed, smiling, subtly modeled faces light up this loving mother-daughter tale. Dropped off at Walter's World of Beauty every day after school, Luisa does her homework and draws pictures of the multicultural clientele until her hairdresser mother comes off shift. Recalling that her mother used to dance "when Dad was around," Luisa colludes with those same regulars to throw Mom a rug-cutting birthday surprise that leaves everyone teary and laughing. Against soft-edged, often golden-tinged backgrounds, Luisa herself dances in graceful, unstudied poses through nearly every frame, and the intimacy shared between child and single parent is evident (without becoming soppy) throughout. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Schwartz & Wade (August 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375836128
• ISBN-13: 978-0375836121
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 0.4 x 11.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #462,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roni Schotter is the award-winning author of 28 books for children, including picture books and story picture books for middle readers, as well as middle-grade and young adult novels. Three more of her books will be coming out in the next couple of years. Her books are concerned with imagination and its power and the extraordinary courage of children who think for themselves and "dare to reach out to the larger world."

Born in New York City, Roni Schotter lived for a time in Brooklyn, New York, then moved to the state that had the smallest piece on her jig-saw puzzle map--Rhode Island. There she learned to love johnny cakes and the sea.

She never knew she would grow up to be a writer, but she knew that she loved words--their mystery, meaning and power. She was shy and spent a good amount of time watching and listening to the world, using her imagination to make sense of what she saw and heard. Grown up and an author now, she still does the same thing. Like a detective, she listens, looks and sniffs the world, then writes about whatever excites or puzzles her--in her notebook. Daydreaming, she uses imagination to create her many stories.

Ms. Schotter's books have won various awards, including the Parents Choice Award (for The Boy Who Loved Words and Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane), the Hungry Mind Review Award (for A Fruit and Vegetable Man), and the Washington Irving Children's Choice Award (for F is for Freedom and Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street.) Dreamland and A Fruit and Vegetable Man were cited as Washington Irving Honor Book Awards. In 1991 Ms. Schotter received the National Jewish Book Award for Hanukkah! Passover Magic was cited by the National Council of Teachers of Social Studies as a "Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies." Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street was cited by the National Council of Teachers of English as a "Notable Children's Trade Book in Language Arts." Her first book, the young-adult novel, A Matter of Time, was made into an ABC After School Special and won an Emmy Award. Several other books have been adapted for the stage by Stages Theatre Company--Hopkins, Minn.

Many of her books have received starred reviews in School Library Journal, including The Boy Who Loved Words, Mama, I'll Give You the World, and Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane and Dreamland (also cited by the Child Study Assoc. and named as an Honor Book for the Irma Simonton Black Award by Bank Street College of Education). About Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street, SLJ said, "Schotter offers blocked young writers some savvy advice . . .[in a] fluently told tale." About The Boy Who Loved Words, SLJ said, "Schotter blends magical realism with a tongue-tingling narrative to create an ode to the power and purpose of language. An inspiring choice for wordsmiths and anyone who cherishes the variety and vitality of language,"

In the past, Ms. Schotter worked as a children's book editor for various publishers. She has also taught writing at Queens College, C.U.N.Y., at Manhattanville College, and privately. She has been a guest speaker at Vassar College's Summer Institute in Children's Publishing, and at annual conferences of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

These days, she does a good deal of speaking in schools to children--fellow writers--about the art and craft of writing and the importance and pleasure of using their imagination to tell their own stories.

Roni Schotter was born in New York City and grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated from New York University with a B.A. in English. She lives in a small village north of New York City with her husband, a playwright/lyricist and professor. She has one son, Jesse, who loves writing and reading as much as she does.

Visit Roni at http://www.ronischotter.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The nicest little girl in the 'world', October 25, 2006

By 

Anne B. Levy "bookbuds.net" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mama, I'll Give You the World (Hardcover)

When's the last time you did something nice for your Mama? Huh? How about for her birthday? What, you ask, flowers aren't enough? I write, I call ...

Well, little Luisa has you beat hands down. Her Mama works at Walter's World of Beauty transforming the neighborhood divas into raging beauties, or, uh, at least gussied-up versions of their middle-aged selves. But Mama wears a tired expression, now that Papa's out of the picture. We never learn why, but then it's probably none of our business anyway.

Walter's World is Luisa's world, where she does her homework, creates playful pictures of the customers and deviously plots to put a smile back on Mama's face. No spoilers here - the plot's about as predictable as can be, but Schotter has such lovely phrasing and vivid descriptions, you don't mind traveling down this oft-visited street where a happy ending lives.

Gallagher used oil paints, which makes the compositions seem older, yellower and faintly cracked, emphasizing Mama's fading youth and diminishing bloom. Exaggerated features, particularly noses, give everyone a comic air, but their softly padded frames and round, shining faces could only belong to a generous, kindly bunch. Only Mama is slender, but she looks more shopworn than chic.

Between Gallagher's loving details and Schotter's artful descriptions, I knew the World so well, I found myself firmly in joyful Luisa's orbit.

5.0 out of 5 stars A gentle story will appeal to many a child with a single parent., November 6, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mama, I'll Give You the World (Hardcover)

There are some 13 million single mothers raising kids in America today - so most timely is MAMA, I'LL GIVE YOU THE WORLD which tells of a daughter who watches her mother work at the beauty salon. Mama's birthday is coming - and Luisa decides to do something special to change her world. A gentle story will appeal to many a child with a single parent.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wait just a minute here...., January 18, 2007

By 

Maryann V. Macdonald (new york, ny United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mama, I'll Give You the World (Hardcover)

Am I the only picture book reader who noticed the extremely strong resemblance between this book and MAMA DOES THE MAMBO by Katherine Leiner (Hyperion 2001)? Both books feature little Hispanic girls whose mothers stop dancing when their husbands disappear. Aren't publishers supposed to check lists to make sure that perhaps unconscious imitations or at least obvious similarities between books don't happen? Who dropped the ball here?

The illustrations are lovely and lively, though.