MAMA HATTIE'S GIRL

The latest book in Lois Lenski's program of regional stories for young readers is a very authentic picture of Negro life in a small southern town. Along with the other active, bustling families on Hibiscus Street live Lula Bell, her mother Imogene and her grandmother, Mama Hattie. It is Mama Hattie who rules the roost like a queen and to whom Lula Bell really ""belongs."" There are the fun and the good times. But mostly, their days bring one serious problem after another- each one of which is followed through with the author's unerring feeling for these people and the kind of realism so often kept out of juvenile writing. Mama Hattie has heart trouble and is subject to disturbing attacks. When Imogene decides to go ""up North"" where her husband Joe has been working in New Jersey, she fights bitterly with Mama Hattie over the sale of the House. And once ""up North"", none of the family really thrives and there is the exodus back to Hibiscus Street where, without too much to go on, they at least have each other and hope. A book that has its depressing moments, but is a positive affirmation of a peoples' tenacity, gaiety and above all, humanity.