EducatingParents.org rating: Approved

Together, a new author and a new illustrator make an outstanding debut. In a bedtime dialogue between a six-or eight-year-old girl and her mother, memorable incidents in their family history are reviewed. The eager, well-loved child asks her mother to recount favorite events, but they are so familiar that she really tells them herself with only occasional comments from Mama: the time Mama got even with a mean neighbor and Grandmama made her apologize--but also gave her an extra sweet-roll; the time Mama and Aunt Jessie went to stay with Great-aunt Rosetta for a few months because their parents had to work; the time Grandmama cried at the airport when Mama moved away. Love and a strong sense of continuity shine through partings and reunions, suggesting that the qualities that make a family strong are passed from one generation to the next through such a rehearsal as this. In watercolors that glow with the story's warm affection, Soman depicts the many times and places in this black family's past, using details of costume and setting to distinguish it from the present. His light-dappled style is realistic, but not overdefined; he is especially gifted at conveying subtle slates of mind through facial expressions and postures. A wonderful book for sharing.

I enjoyed the paintings that the illustrator made to go along with the story. They were very colorful and really captured the emotions that the characters were feeling based on the author's dialogue. I don't feel like the story was necessarily bad, but I didn't really like how the daughter was the one telling the stories about her mom. The only reason I can think that the author did this was to show that the mother and daughter had a strong connection and spent a lot of time together. The only really moral to the story that I can decipher is that it is important for families to spend time together and share their family history. ( )

Summary: This story is about a great bond between a mother and her daughter. He daughter loves story time before bed but not just any old story out of a book. She loves to hear stories about her mother when she was little and how she grew up. In this book the daughter is the one who really tells the story because she has heard them so many times. Even though she heard them so many times she loves to hear them over and over again.

Personal Reaction: This is a really great short story. Not only because it is short but having that special bond between you and your mother is the best bond to have ever. When I was younger I used to love to listen to the old stories of when I was young that my mom and dad would tell me. I can say the best stories I loved to listen to is when my dad and mom was growing up because he came from Detroit, Michigan which is a big city and my mom is from Frogville, Oklahoma which is a small, small country town that really no one ever hear of. So listening to the different cultures and how they were raised is like a big thing to me.

Classroom Extinctions: 1.) In the class I would ask the students to all write down were they are from.
2.) I would have them write down something that they remember always doing as a little kid or something they remember their parents always doing.
3.) I would let everyone interact on the different styles and parenting that everyone had went through when they were younger.

Tell Me a Story, Mama is an adorable story where a little girl wants her mama to tell her a story but the little girl actually tells the story instead. She tells about her mama’s life and mama just agrees and adds a comment or two. The pictures show a loving family with good memories.

The pictures were sweet and I loved how the little girl actually told the story herself. The story ends with mama promising to “tell more stories tomorrow.” My little girl kissed the pictures.

I would use this book to talk about choices and how we treat people who are not nice to us. We could also talk about families and who lives in our houses? The grandmother lived with the little girl and her family and when her mother was younger, she and her sister had to live with an aunt for four months while the parents worked.