Button Box: Stories about Mama »

Mama believed the woman who dies with the most fabric scraps wins. She saved scraps from odd sewing jobs for neighbors. She saved buttons from old winter coats and birthday dresses. Mama had a button from Daddy's first uniform and another from Grandma's cloth coat and every button in the box came with a story. In her trademark Texas twang, award-winning storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith recounts stories from her family that speak to all of us.

Publishers Weekly

Who needs television? Not award-winning storyteller McBride-Smith, who describes the various TV-less entertainments of her Texas childhood, which included listening to the radio with Daddy and hearing her talented seamstress mother tell stories sparked by the buttons she'd saved from various projects. Years later, McBride-Smith takes to heart the most important lesson Mama learned during the Depression: "Never throw anything away." Mama has passed the valuable treasure of the title along to her storyteller daughter along with the inspiration for tales of all sorts and sizes. The mother-daughter theme rings true with love and warmth. Throughout, speaking with the colorful twang for which her home state is known, McBride-Smith serves up a homespun sound that will conjure up visions of front porches and rocking chairs. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.