Two Mrs. Gibsons

by Toyomi Igus, Daryl Wells (Illustrator)

Overview

Two Mrs. Gibsons is author Toyomi Igus's tender and touching tribute to the two most important women in her life—her Japanese mother and her African American grandmother.

From memories of her grandmother's big bear hugs to her mother's light down-filled comforter hugs, from listening to her grandmother's lively spirituals to her mother's soft lullabies, from playing with her grandmother's fancy going-to-a-Sunday-meetin' hats to trying on her mother's kimono, Toyomi celebrates the joys and rich diversity of growing up biracial.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892391707
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.75(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Toyomi Igus is the author and editor of several books for children, including Two Mrs. Gibsons and the award-winning Going Back Home, her brilliant account of artist Michele Wood's personal journey to the South. The former Editor and Publications Director for UCLA's Center for African American Studies, she lives in Los Angeles, California.

Daryl Wells is a painter and former art teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has worked with young people to create many public murals.A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she is a native of Los Angeles, California.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 3A narrator describes her life growing up with her African American grandmother and Japanese mother. She contrasts the women's habits, attitudes, and personalities, and the activities she shares with each. The story is a loving mood piece, telling of strength through difference as together mother and grandmother provide a loving and nurturing environment. Igus's simple, affecting prose speaks directly to the heart and is well matched by Wells's warm, lush paintings. An aura of the suburban America of a few decades ago pervades these folksy illustrations, mirroring the text in both tone and detail. Multicultural in the best and most basic meaning of that much-abused term, Two Mrs. Gibsons will be prized for independent reading and group sharing.John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library

School Library Journal

In alternating passages, a young girl tells about two women she knew in her past, one an elderly African-American, the other a younger Japanese. Both of them are named Mrs. Gibson, and with each turn of the page, the suspense builds: Exactly who are these women? Even if older readers guess, younger readers will have the satisfaction of discovering that the narrator has been describing her Japanese mother and her African-American grandmother, Nanny, pointing out the differences in their cultures, yet showing the commonality of their love toward the girl. With a reassuring repetitive structure, this gentle book is both a memoir about Igus's real relatives and an understated tribute to the ability of people from widely different cultures to live together. Wells's colorful pictures have a matching warmth of spirit, along with an awkwardness of figure and perspective that gives them the look of folk art.

Kirkus Reviews