Minnie Saves the Day
   Melodye Benson Rosales
  2001 Little, Brown & Co.
    ISBN: 0316756059


When her father returns home from a trip down South, he brings a surprise from Grandmama -- a little brown rag doll which Hester Merriweather calls Minnie. The first night in her new home, Minnie finds herself part of a wonderful family of dolls & toys & onto her first adventure.

It is Bronzeville, 1933 & Hester's family -- her Mama, Willimena Louise & her sister, Anna Julia gather at Chicago's 12th Street Station to welcome her Papa home. He is a tall man, towering above most people with dark brown skin & a thick, black moustache which gives him a handsome look. Papa works for the Illinois Central Railroad as a Pullman porter & sometimes he is away for days at a time, so Hester is thrilled when he comes home. This time, she knows he's coming back with a gift from Grandmama Alfie & there, in a brown paper parcel, is a little brown rag doll. Hester has never had a brown skin doll before.

That night when Papa & Mama put the girls to bed, he tells them the stories of the special cloths that went into making the little brown rag doll. A piece from a dress Grandmama had worn as a child, another from a shirt Papa had had when he was a boy & the special tale about the cloth of the doll's body which came from Grandmama's grandmother's dress, the one she wore when she was stolen from her village in Africa many, many, many years ago!

Finally the family is asleep & that's when the dolls & toys come alive, as everyone knows! Minnie suddenly hears squabbling voices & finds her own voice & then her legs, wobbly like a newborn lamb. Soon she's met her new neighbors: Prima Donna, Waddle Waddle, Grumpy Old Bear, Baby Doll & someone in the corner who knows how to rhyme! What a strange time!

The next days are filled with the life & times of Hester's family -- visits from neighbors & Mama's parents; listening to radio shows & cake baking. The nights are filled with the life & times of Minnie's new family -- tea parties & -- well, you just have to read how Minnie Saves the Day to find out!

Melodye Benson Rosales' pictures throb with energy & are beautifully wrought -- there is an air of another time, another place to this author/illustrator's work -- a timelessness that draws you in & makes you part of Hester's & Minnie's families.

At the book's end there is a section called: Chocolate-Covered Memories: A Snapshot of Chicago's African-American History. Complete with handwritten text & sepia-tinted photographs of that era -- ah, did Chicago ever look so rural & placid? Did we ever look so calm & present? Snippets of memories from neighbors; advertisements for Colored Dolls & even a Cake Recipe for Butter Pound Cake!

Minnie Saves the Day is a fully-imagined, elegantly & eloquently presented treasure to be savored & re-read to each wondering generation.

Melodye Benson Rosales has illustrated many outstanding children's books:
the original first 3 Addy Stories in the American Girls series;
'Twas the Night B'fore Christmas
A Strawbeater's Thanksgiving Masquerade
Leola and the Honeybears
& the further Adventures of Minnie:
Minnie's Risky Rescue
Minnie's Haunted Halloween.
(06/24/01)

Rebecca