Ma Dear's Aprons

Here is a heartfelt collaboration between a Newbery Honor Book author and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book illustrator that creates a moving portrait of what life was like in the turn-of-the-century South for a poor single mother and her son in a time before washing machines, cars, and TV sets. Monday means washing, with Ma Dear scrubbing at her rub board in her blue apron. Tuesday is ironing, in a sunshine-yellow apron that brightens Ma Dear's spirits. And so it goes, a different chore and a different apron for every day of the week. But come Sunday, the sweet reward is a picnic by the creek -- mother and son alone together with nothing to do but enjoy each other's company.