A CHAIR FOR MY MOTHER AND OTHER STORIES Vera B. Williams Audio Collection

The bouncy rhythms of the introductory composition set the mood for Martha Plimpton's lively narration of a story about a cheerful young girl and her optimistic mother and grandmother. With her youthful voice, Plimpton's bubbly reading captures a family who eagerly saves coins for a new chair after a fire has destroyed their home and furnishings. This is a layered family listen. Adults will admire the girl's waitress mother, who dreams up a playful solution for their loss, and the daughter who worries about her mother's tired feet. Children are more likely to focus on Plimpton's happy tones as Williams describe the fun of counting money into a giant jar and going to four furniture stores to find the chair, the most perfect chair in the world, the one "we were all dreaming of.” S.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2009]