A Chair for Always

May 4, 2009
In this satisfying companion to Williams's Caldecott Honor book, A Chair for My Mother
, bighearted Rosa welcomes Benji, the son of her Aunt Ida, into the family—and into its beloved armchair splashed with roses. While a midwife delivers the baby upstairs, restless Rosa curls up in the chair (“Our chair is a lucky chair”) and contentedly imagines sharing her life with a young cousin. And when Rosa's mother and grandmother consider reupholstering or replacing the chair, she determinedly tells her mother that the chair must remain as is and that it will accompany her wherever she goes (Williams humorously illustrates her vow with an image of Rosa lugging the overstuffed piece of furniture on a mountain hike). Soft, brightly colored gouache art, hemmed in by borders that feature a cheery array of images and patterns, affectingly captures the close bond among family members as they celebrate a new arrival and an old friend: Rosa's treasured chair. The bustling scenes of family life that stuff the pages of this warm intergenerational story should prove irresistible. Ages 3–8.