Bigmama's

Bigmama's
Written by Donald Crews
1991

We all have memories of our grandparents, and the children portrayed in this story are no different. They call them Bigmama and Bigpapa, and they're spending three days and two nights on a train to get to their grandparents' house in Cottondale for the summer. After arriving, the first item on the agenda is to go from room to room in order to make sure that nothing had changed since their last visit. The narrator thinks of memories from past years, and is pleased to find everything on the property just as he remembered. It isn't until the end of the story that we discover that it's all a memory...that he's a grown man, looking out the window at the big city he lives in.

This story is very versatile and could be utilized with a wide range of ages. It's simple enough on the surface level to be understood by younger readers, particularly with the help of the illustrations, while it could be used with older readers to discuss everything from point-of-view to customs and traditions. The illustrations of the characters are relatively simple, while the surroundings are done in much greater detail. This helps to draw the reader's focus the what is happening around the characters in the illustrations.