Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
No Time for Mother's Day
Illustrator: Dorothy Donohue
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Albert Whitman & Company, 1999 ISBN: 978-0807549568
It is Friday when Charity's teacher reminds her class that it will be Mother's day on Sunday. That is only two days away, and Charity instantly begins to worry about what she is going to give her mother. The other children all seem to know what they are going to do for their mothers on Mother's Day but Charity hasn't a clue what she is going to do.
On Saturday Charity goes out to run errands with her mother. They rush from place to place and Charity realizes that her poor overworked mother could do with "five more hands and another pair of legs."
Later, when her mother has to go to her office, Charity goes to the mall with her father and Cousin Fred. Charity is not best pleased because she finds Fred annoying. Fred knows exactly what he is going to get his mother and he proceeds to buy her a candle, perfume, and bubble bath. Charity knows that her mother wouldn't like any of these things. What is she is going to do? Time is running out rapidly.
In this clever little picture book Laurie Halse Anderson perfectly captures the mood and atmosphere in a busy household, a household in which the mother is very in demand and often rushed. It is a familiar picture which many children will recognize. They will also recognize Charity's anxieties; it is not easy finding presents for mothers. Best of all, children will learn that sometimes the best presents of all are the ones that can't be gift wrapped; they are often the ones which give the recipient the greatest pleasure.
