Shy Mama's Halloween
Illustrator
Leane Morin
Publisher
Tilbury House Pub
Publication Year
2000
ISBN
9780884482185
Pages
40 pages
Genre
realism
Format
picture book
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
For Anya, Dasha, Irina, and Dimitrii, newly arrived to this country, Halloween seems a wonderfully strange and exciting holiday. They enlist Mrs. Rumanski and her midnight-blue Singer sewing machine in the apartment downstairs to help with their costumes, and Papa agrees to take them out trick-or-treating. But Papa comes home sick that evening, and it looks as though the children will be watching the trick or treating from the upstairs window. Mama, who is frightened by so much in this new country, especially the thought of ghosts and goblins on the streets, surprises them all when she rises to the occasion and takes her young princess, witch, devil, and clown down the stairs and out into the night. As they go from house to house, they find that everyone along the street is friendly. No one seems to care that their "Thank yous" are said with an accent, or that Mama, in her babushka, can speak only a few words of English. For Anya, Dasha, Irina, and Dimitrii, it is their first sense of belonging in their new country, of savoring the fun and magic of Halloween and the generosity of strangers. For Mama, it is a much greater step out into a new world, led by her children.
Grade Level
PK-1; K-3
Lexile Measure
AD780L
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; Culture/Ethnicity; Language barrier; Bicultural; Bilingual; Immigrants and refugees; different languages; bicultural family; bilingual family; immigrant family; immigrant children; immigrant parents
Main Character
female teenager
Race/Ethnicities
White (Russian)
Family Formation
mother and father
Awards
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2001 History, Life and Culture in the Americas
Teachers' Choice Award for Children's Books, 2002, Winner
Keywords
Russia; Halloween; costumes; treats; princess; clown; shyness; babushka; fear; sick
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Broyles, Anne, "Shy Mama's Halloween" (2000). Diverse Families. 1765.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1765