Cherry Pies and Lullabies - Hardcover

Reiser, Lynn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688133916 ISBN 13: 9780688133917

Publisher: Greenwillow, 1998

Synopsis

Four generations of mothers and daughters from one family pass on family traditions--from baking cherry pies to making quilts to singing lullabies--that vary slightly with the times but always express unconditional love.

About this title

About the Author

Lynn Reiser is the author of many popular books for children.She is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and practices psychiatry in New Haven, Connecticut.She lives in a house in a garden in a forest in a town on the planet Earth.

In Her Own Words...

"I am a psychiatrist. Much of my time is spent practicing and teaching at Yale Medical School. In recent years I have also found pleasure in making books for children.

"My books start out as images and sketches and evolve as I draw them. Out of the art comes a dialogue, and from this the story emerges. Putting a picture book together is like playing a game--there are rules and surprises. The book must have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and fit into a set number of pages and a particular size.

"I draw wherever and whenever I have timewaiting in a train station, sitting by a stream, even on an airplane. Sometimes I begin sketches for a book years before I have a complete story or text. I draw the whole book in whatever order the images come, then I cut and paste the drawings until they fit. I listen for the rhythm of the words and of the pictures-once I sense it, it becomes another guide and constraint. The finished book is always a surprise.

"I always knew I liked to draw. I did not know that I liked to write until after I began to do it. One of the first books I submitted to Susan Hirschman at Greenwillow Books was the wordless dummy for Bedtime Cat I asserted that the words were obvious. Susan said, "Then write them down." Through this process of "writing them down" I became a writer. Now I collect interesting words and phrases as well as sketches, and play with words as I play with images.

"I like to learn as much as I can about nature, the world, and people. Studying biology and medicine and psychology satisfies my curiosity about these subjects, and practicing psychiatry and teaching fulfill my wish to work with people and to help them. At first glance this sort of work may seem very different from the process of making picture books. But I feel that it is similar in that much of what I do as a physician is help others to express themselves, to discover their own stories, and to fit them together to make more sense of their lives. Words and dream images appear in my work every day. Metaphors and stories are part of communicating with students and patients.

"I have learned to trust that whatever comes to mind and hand is likely to be relevant and useful, no matter how silly it may seem at first.

"Making books is hard work, but it is a joy."

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 3-In a story that celebrates maternal love across the generations, a child reflects on gifts that are given again and again. The narrator relates how her great-grandmother baked a cherry pie for her grandmother, who in turn baked one for her mother, who baked for her. In the end, the little girl pretends to bake a pie for her teddy bear. The pictures, which are simply drawn yet rich in color and detail, reflect the changes that time brings to the baking process. While great-grandmother rolls her own crust and uses fresh fruit, grandmother can call on a frozen crust and canned pie filling. The mother of today, dressed for success, slips a home-style pie into the microwave. "Every time it was the same, but different." The following "chapters" trace the same women as they weave crowns of flowers (meadow picked, garden grown, and now purchased at the florist) and wrap their daughters in quilts (hand stitched, machine stitched, and then mail ordered). The final chapter maintains the warm feeling as each mother sings her daughter a lullaby. This time, in spite of changing scenery, "Every time it was the same." The words and music (sung to Brahms's "Lullaby") are included. Reiser's Tortillas and Lullabies (Greenwillow, 1998) tells essentially "the same, but different" story, narrated by a little girl in Costa Rica. The warmth and energy of these books make them perfect choices for intergenerational sharing.
Lisa S. Murphy, formerly at Dauphin County Library System, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Cherry pie is the appetizing first course in Reiser's (Best Friends Think Alike) mirthful celebration of domestic traditions. With each appearance of the treat, a new generation is marked: fresh-picked cherries are baked in the homemade pies of the narrator's great-grandmother on the farm; cherries are retrieved from a tin can in the grandmother's suburban kitchen; cherries come frozen in the microwave pie that the narrator's business-suited, urban mother "bakes" for her; and cherries are made from clay in the pie the girl serves her teddy bear. "Every time it was the same, but different," sings the refrain. After the pies, Reiser offers similar treatment to family traditions of making garlands of flowers (once gathered in fields, now wrapped from the florist) and quilts (once hand-sewn, now store-bought). But when Reiser turns to lullabies, she delivers a pleasing surprise: each mother sings them the very same way. (Music for Brahms's "Lullaby" appears at the end, with Reiser's lyrics.) The illustrations, flat and boldly outlined, are true to Reiser's established style. The depictions of women border on stereotype?the great-grandmother with her spectacles and old-fashioned bib apron; grandmother with her perky '50s hairdo and sewing machine?but Reiser's attention to the reworking of similar detail in each frame is commendable and her gently poked fun a warmly effective way to reinforce stories of family history. Ages 4-up. (Apr.) FYI: A bilingual companion volume, Tortillas and Lullabies/Tortillas y cancioncitas ($16, -14628-7), also by Reiser, uses a Costa Rican setting; it is due out simultaneously.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PLB 0-688-13392-4 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 crust 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. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 4^-6. Using one chapter for each story, a little girl explains how four generations of mothers and daughters give and receive love by participating in family traditions--making a crown of flowers, singing a lullaby, sewing a quilt, baking a pie: "Every time, it was the same, but different." The well-executed watercolor-and-ink illustrations convey how the traditions alter through the years: great-grandmother makes pies from scratch, grandmother uses frozen crust, mother buys a ready-baked pie, and the little girl uses Play-Doh. The illustrations provide plenty of recurring motifs for children to search out, and an ingenious family tree at the back of the book helps make the concept of generations enjoyable and clear. The words and music to Brahms' "Lullaby" are also provided, rewritten in a way that, like the book's other gifts of love, is "the same, but different." Shelley Townsend-Hudson

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwillow
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688133916
• ISBN 13: 9780688133917
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 39