The Table Where Rich People Sit - Hardcover

Byrd Baylor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684196530 ISBN 13: 9780684196534

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1994

Synopsis

A young girl discovers that her impoverished family is rich in things that matter in life, especially being outdoors and experiencing nature.

Mountain Girl knows her family doesn’t have enough money. But as the family sits around their scratched-up kitchen table and discusses the subject, her parents say they’re rich. Don’t her parents see her worn-out shoes or the patches on her little brother’s pants?

They begin to count up the value of the things they have. How much is it worth to be able to see the sky all day and feel the wind and smell the coming rain? Or to watch a cactus bloom or to sleep outside under the stars? After a while, Mountain Girl begins to realize money may not be as important as she thought. Could her family really be rich after all?

About this title

About the Author

Byrd Baylor lives and writes in Arizona, presenting images of the Southwest and an intense connection between the land and the people. Her prose illustrates vividly the value of simplicity, the natural world, and the balance of life within it.

From Kirkus Reviews

Money. Always a problem. A young girl feels her family is too poor, and she calls a family meeting to discuss the question of money. But by giving another definition of rich, her folks set her straight: They are indeed rich in ways immeasurable by the dollar (although they assign monetary values to their pleasures for the purposes of the meeting). The family members lead lives of great deliberation, being where they want to be, doing what they choose to do. Sunrise, ocean waves, the smell of rain, mountain shadows, bird calls--these all add up (to $60,000, to be precise). And, of course, they have each other, which is worth $4,000,000 more. The final tally, without even including what they actually earn, comes to $4,060,000. So they are rich. Baylor's (Your Own Best Secret Place, 1991, etc.) story can be clumsy, even ham-handed, but the message is immediate. More problematic are the illustrations: Peter Max-like psychedelia meets Outdoor Life in a fusion that crashes and burns. (Fiction/Picture book. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0684196530
• ISBN 13: 9780684196534
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Peter Parnall