CHERRY PIES AND LULLABIES

by Lynn Reiser ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

From Reiser (Best Friends Think Alike, 1997, etc.), an original and attractive tribute to feminine arts and crafts, in a personal history of one family's changing traditions. Four chapters delineate the baking of a cherry pie, the crafting of a crown of flowers, the construction of a quilt, and the singing of a lullaby. As the great-grandmother bakes a pie for the narrator's grandmother, readers come across the details of the furniture, the home and garden, the clothing, and so on. The methods and locales change over time, from a pie made from scratch, to one made with a frozen crest and canned cherries, to a microwave pie, to the child's pretend pie, but ""every time it was the same, but different."" Reiser's bold outline drawings are misleadingly simple, capturing pets, scenery, and the wonderful quilts consistently and impressively. There is much to pore over: the changing telephones, the eggbeater, the milk in a bottle, the milk in a carton, as well as the generations moving from rural locales to more urban ones (the farm wife quilts at home while the modern career mother orders a quilt from a catalog with her cell phone). A music sheet is included for the lullaby, as well as a family tree, an author's note on her family history, and a page depicting the generations of the homes of her relatives.

Pub Date: April 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Greenwillow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998

Categories: CHILDREN'S