To Grandmother’s House We Go!

In Bigmama’s, author Donald Crews takes readers on a walk down memory lane, drawing upon memories of visiting his grandmother in Cottondale, Florida to create a rich celebration of family and childhood. Crews describes how every summer he would travel with his mother, brothers and sisters on a three day train ride to Bigmama’s house in rural Florida. Upon their arrival, Uncle Slank would pick them up at the train station and take them to their grandparents’ house where “Bigmama and Bigpapa were waiting for us on the porch. There were hugs and kisses and ‘Oh my, how you’ve grown!’ and ‘How tall you are…is this you?’” Once they were through with the greetings, the kids would go inside, kick off their shoes and socks (“We wouldn’t need them much in the next few weeks,”) and explore. Crews remarks that every time they arrived at Bigmama's - despite the passage of a year - nothing ever seemed to change. The pedal sewing machine, the wind up record player, the kerosene lamps and the Sears Roebuck catalogs remained the same. Rural life created a living playground for Crews and his siblings. There was the chicken coop where “Sunday dinner’s chicken spent its last days,” the outhouse which was “okay now, but scary in the dark,” the barn where eggs were hidden, the stable with two horses, Nancy and Maude, and the pond where there was “plenty of water for fishing and swimming.” Crews describes the large family meals they would have where they “talked so much we hardly had time to eat,” which were followed up with gazing at the night sky filled with millions of stars. He ends the book on a nostalgic note, writing as a bearded man, “Some nights even now I think that I might wake up in the morning and be at Bigmama’s with the whole summer ahead of me.”

            Not only was Bigmama’s heartwarming, it really did a great job of exploring familial relations through a child’s perspective. Crews uses similar techniques as Cynthia Rylant did in The Relatives Came, remarking with childlike wonder at the hubbub surrounding a three day journey to his grandmother’s house and the resulting fun and freedom he and his siblings experienced once there. He accurately captures the feeling of independence that farm life in the summer brings with it. Crews’ description of family dynamics is also similar to Rylant’s, especially when detailing the lengthy hugs and kisses upon arrival and the seemingly endless dinner chatter. The accompanying watercolor illustrations manage to be both visually appealing and simplistic, mimicking the warm childlike tone created by his text. From all of my research and having read a few of Crews’ other books, the illustrating style is quite a departure from his usual style of bold lines and color.  I think this is intentional, representative of the emotional and sentimental quality of his memories. Overall, I think Bigmama's did a great job a recording an experience that many can identify with. Regardless of age, readers young and old will identify with Bigmama’s and surely find a bit of their childhood among its pages.