A young girl and her mother,
who is in prison, manage
to maintain and strengthen
their relationship when they are
forced by circumstances to be apart.
"The warm, first-person narrative and realistic double-page art show the loving bond between Sugar and her single-parent mom, as Sugar remembers Mama's loving stories about the joy of Sugar's birth--on Mama's own birthday. Sugar now lives with Grammy, and they travel every Sunday on three long bus rides to visit Mama. For their shared birthday, Mama makes Sugar a gift book full of the stories Sugar remembers. There's no mention of Mama's crime or of the length of her sentence; the focus is on the sadness of the separation. Children who know this world, as well as those who don't, will be moved by the longing in the close-up of the parent and child's warm embrace in the room crowded with other visiting families." - Booklist
Pat Brisson coordinates Project Storybook, a program at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, NJ, which allows incarcerated mothers to select, record and mail books and CDs to their children. She was honored to receive the N. J. Governor's Volunteer Award in Human Services for this project.
ISBN 1-56397-966-7