Bye, MIS' Lela ANNOTATION
At first, Sugar Plum cries when her mother leaves her with Mis' Lela, but the happy days they spend together make Sugar Plum want to remember her, even after she dies.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
When Sugar Plum's friend Mis' Lela dies, she still feels the warm and lasting effect of the time they spent together. With dialectal poetry and bright illustrations that capture the pace and essence of life in a small Southern town, Dorothy Carter and Harvey Stevenson show how losing someone you love doesn't mean forgetting.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In this gentle but not altogether childlike picture book, an African American girl comes to terms with the death of her elderly caregiver. Sugar Plum fondly recalls how, when her mother went off to work, she played with the chickens and geese in the yard as Mis' Lela hung the piles of laundry on the line. She remembers how Mis' Lela bathed her in a washtub and fed her ginger cake. And then she remembers Mis' Lela's death. Attending Mis' Lela's wake, she saw her friend lying on her bed, dressed in her "Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes," and realized they'd never play together again. Carter (Br'er Rabbit Meets His Match) tackles a difficult topic with a predominantly poignant voice and memorable characterizations. She clearly evokes a bygone era, a time when it was not uncommon for women to take in laundry and for a tinker to call door-to-door. However, Mis' Lela's passing breaks the tender mood Carter has established so well. This emotional shift may prove jarring for young readers, whom Carter fails to consider in her abrupt, vague descriptions of death and grief, and for whom the implicit message, that time heals, will be hard to accept. Stevenson's (The Tangerine Tree) oils feature a summery palette of greens, blues, yellows and pinks, suggesting sunny days spent outdoors. His portraits of a kind-faced Mis' Lela holding Sugar on her lap radiate warmth and love. Ages 5-8. (Apr.)
Children's Literature - Leila Toledo
Miss Lela takes care of Sugar Plum when her mother goes to work. She cries when her mother leaves but then she settles into spending happy hours with her baby-sitter. Then one day, Miss Lela dies and Sugar Plum has to deal with her loss. Part of the healing process is remembering the love they shared. It is a tender story of how one child deals with the death of her baby-sitter, a good story for children to help them learn how to confront the pain of losing a loved one. The vibrant illustrations clearly show that the love and fond memories never disappear.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 3Little Sugar Plum stays with Mis' Lela while her mother is at work. Though she cries when her mother leaves her, Mis' Lela succeeds in wiping the "dewdrops" off the child's cheeks. Throughout the day, they work and play, teach and learn, eat, sleep, and take life as it comes. Then one day, Mis' Lela dies. Little Sugar and her mother go to the wake and listen to the folks talking low "`bout Mis' Lela restin' with the Comforter." The child asks her mother questions: "Can she hear me?" "Can she see me?" "Can she dream?" Mother answers in simple negatives. Now Mother takes Sugar to work with her, and when she grows bigger she passes Mis' Lela's house on her way to school. She hears Mis' Lela say, "Study your lessons, Sugar Plum, and mind your manners." Stevenson's paintings are simple and powerful, filled with the lively hot colors of a Southern summer afternoon, and then the sad blues and greens of a mourning house with drawn shades. The story is sensitively and tenderly told and the pictures are its heart-moving complement.Ruth Semrau, formerly at Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Kirkus Reviews
This hushed book about life and death, arrivals and departures, and hellos and good-byes, is so reflective and subdued it feels as if it should be read aloud in a whisper. Sugar Plum, an African-American preschooler, has a hard time when her mom, who works, drops her off at Mis' Lela's, but Mis' Lela is an old soul and knows how to console a youngster. Soon Sugar Plum is enjoying herself, sharing with Mis' Lela the small incidents of her day. She is droll at the arrival of Mr. Tinker Man: "He's gonna mend one hole and punch two, making more leaks in my tin tubs," and understated about a visit from Mis' Bible Lady"My, that woman can talk." Then, when Mis' Lela dies, Sugar Plum must contend with griefemotions that are limned in childlike and immediate terms. Stevenson's soft-edged illustrations heighten the dreamy quality of the text, so much so that it seems only natural that Sugar Plum, old enough to head to school, says a quiet hello when she walks past Mis' Lela's old house, and that a familiar "Study your lessons, Sugar Plum, and mind your manners" seems to come floating sweetly back from the ether. (Picture book. 5-9)
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