Gingerbread Days: Poems

Thomas, Joyce Carol

ISBN 10: 0060234725 ISBN 13: 9780060234720

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1995

Synopsis

A collection of seasonal poems follows an African-American boy's celebration of the family traditions and holidays of the year, from January's gingerbread baking through the gift-giving days of December.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Like food stored away for winter, this rich harvest of poems contains enough sustenance to last throughout the year. A companion volume to Thomas and Cooper's Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, the 12 poems included are somewhat arbitrarily linked to various months of the year but unified by a single narrator. "August Cowboy" tells of a boy's Buffalo Soldier grandfather; "April Medicine" is about how the boy is comforted by his mother's touch because she knows "the temperature of [his] head" and the "weather of [his] heart." Each poem and paiting is infused with the warmth and strength of the boy's family and his home where, as he says, "We drink love for breakfast." Cooper's predominantly yellow and brown palette reflects the glow of a hearth fire, where the father's "bricklayer hands/ red and muddy with mortar" smell like "the fireplace/ He's built and stoked with wood" to warm the family's "chilly bones." Thomas's simple but touching language describes a hopeful world where school, church, and family ties are celebrated, where "people are more important than things," and where love is as wonderful as gingerbread, warm and spicy from the oven. All ages.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3?The author and illustrator of Brown Honey in Broomstick Tea (HarperCollins, 1993) again have teamed up to create a collection of verses and paintings. This one celebrates the passage of a year within the circle of an extended African American family. From Grandma's cozy kitchen in January to the sparkle and noise of a July Fourth commemoration to the appreciation in December of a father's strength and love, a young boy thrives on the nurturing of his caring relatives. Over the months, he experiences a mother's healing hands, father's protection in a storm (and in life), sister's reminder that she's her own boss, Grandpa's gift of his heritage, and everyone's loving encouragement on his first day of school. Together they read, worship, and play in both word and luminous pictures. As the boy himself realizes in a Thanksgiving prayer, God has blessed him with this family. Readers will agree.?Meg Stackpole, Rye Free Reading Room, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0060234725
• ISBN 13: 9780060234720
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Illustrator: Cooper Floyd