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Written by: Vera B. Williams
Published: 1982

A Chair for My Mother follows a little girl named Rosa after her home is destroyed in a fire. Rosa discusses a jar that her, her mother, and her grandmother are using to save up change. Rosa said that when they fill the jar, they would go and buy a beautiful new arm chair.  She says that all of their old furniture turned to charcoal and ash. After the family filled the jar, they went to the store and tried out many different chairs until they found the chair they had been dreaming of.

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Vera B. Williams (1927-2015) was an author and illustrator of several award winning books. She is best known for "A Chair for My Mother" and "More, More, More, Said the Baby." Vera, herself, had won several awards including the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature and the Jane Addam's Children's Book Award.

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"A Chair for My Mother" won a Caldecott Medal in 1983. A Caldecott Medal recognized "the most distinguished American picture book for children."

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I believe that this book is a piece of Quality Literature for several reasons.

1. It pictures a nontraditional family. It's not your average "mom, dad, brother, and sister" family. This book features a single mother who works very hard as a waitress to support her mother and daughter, Rosa.

2. The setting of the book is in a city where the family lives in an apartment building. This is shows students that there are many different places to live not just the typical neighborhood setting shown in many children's books.

3. This book features a tragedy and how a family deals with such a loss.

4. "A Chair for My Mother" encourages perseverance, the idea to never give up. It also pushes the theme that hard work does pay off.

5. Many cultures are represented in this book. I believe the main characters are of a Hispanic background and the families that live around them are of all different cultures and backgrounds.

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Although, I have heard of this book before, I have never read it or used it in my classroom. After listening to the story and reading up on it's background, I would definitely use this book in my classroom.

I believe that this is a book my students in Head Start can relate to. All of the families in my classroom are from a low economic background and many families may relate to the hardworking, long hours.

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Standards that relate to the reading of this book:

CC.1.2.PREK.A- With prompting and support, retell key details of text that support a provided main idea.

CC.1.2.PREK.C- With prompting and support, make connections between information in a text and personal experiences.

I would use this book when introducing my "Family Theme". In this theme we discuss different family structures, different types of homes, and differences in general. "A Chair for My Mother" covers many of these discussion topics.

An activity that I may do with my students is have them think about saving up change like Rosa did. In a small group, I would have them draw a picture of what they would buy with the money they saved up. After each child had enough time to draw their picture, they'd take turns sitting in the "author's chair" and discuss what they'd save up for.

This book can also be used when talking about Fire Safety. A discussion can be had about what might have started the fire and what to do in case of an emergency.