In Our Mothers' House ~ Yep, the apostrophe is in the right place!
Written: Oct 30 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Portrays a loving, beautiful and non-traditional family.
Cons: Don't be a Lockner!
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line hopes that this doesn't find its way to the 2010 most challenged book list!
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| dramastef's Full Review: In Our Mothers' House |
We read about three hundred children's books each year (give or take a hundred) in our house. Very few of those make a lasting impression. A few, however, are burned in my heart. Pink and Say was one such book. Even now, when I think of the true story told by Patricia Polacco, I get chills. When my second grade son told me that Polacco was coming into his school to read a few of her books, we went to the library so he would be familiar with more of her works than a heartbreaking remembrance of one dead child soldier. Though I'd read that Polacco was no stranger to controversial topics for her books, I had to grin when I saw the cover of her latest book, In Our Mothers' House. And yes, that apostrophe is in the right place!
The cover shows Marmee and Meema with their children. A black girl who tells the story from her point of view, an Asian boy named Will and a red headed baby named Millie. Marmee and Meema fill their house with love. They dance and cook and soothe childhood fears. They are the foundation of this very happy family. They dress up with their children for Halloween and even do their very best to ignore Mrs. Lockner who glares at the mothers.
When the mothers build a treehouse in the back yard, all the kids in the neighborhood are invited for the inaugural sleepover.
Even the Lockner kids were invited, but their parents came and got them. They barely spoke to us... They just plain didn't like us, I guessed. I couldn't quite understand why. We always tried to be respectful and friendly, the way our mothers taught us to be.
Things with the Lockner family explode at the block party, organized by Meema and Marmee. Mrs. Lockner snarls at the family that she doesn't appreciate what they are. Trying to explain it to the children, Meema says that "She is full of fear... She's afraid of what she cannot understand..."
Though I've made it sound like much of In Our Mothers' House focuses on the fear and ignorance portrayed through the Lockner family, that's really just a small part of the story. The bulk of it is simply a beautiful, happy family. Three adopted children who are raised with love and kindness in their Mothers' house.
The children grew up and went their separate ways, but all of them returned to be married at their mothers' house. As for their loving mothers? They passed away within a year of each other. Will, Millie and I placed them together in a green hillside overlooking the bay very near the place where they pledged their love to each other so many years ago.
Patricia Polacco does all of her own illustrations. Though they're not my favorite illustrations, and they aren't nearly as memorable as the stories she tells, she is a very talented illustrator. The colorful pencil drawings go well with this story of an unconventional family. I urge you to visit her website www.patriciapolacco.com for excerpts from her books, as well as examples of her artwork.
In Our Mothers' House depicts a happy, loving family that gathers strength from the parent figures. In today's world, when the mother-father-two children kind of family is the minority, and when we need to raise our children not to be Lockners, I think a book like this is a necessity. I heartily commend Ms. Polacco for writing about such topics. I hope you look for it at your library or bookstore and share it with your children.
This review is Lean-n-Mean.
Recommended:
Yes
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