About this item
For one magical night, Luisa wants to make her single mother's worries disappear.Every day after school Luisa goes to Walter's World of Beauty to watch her mama work-- cutting, coloring, and curling customer's hair, transforming them into the images of their dreams. Mama works hard and hardly ever smiles, but when she does, she is the prettiest flower in all the World. At the end of each day, she puts her tip money in a special envelopes for Luisa-- the envelope marked "college." She wants to give her daughter the world-- but Luisa has plans of her own. It's Mama's birthday and, for one night, she wants to make Mama smile... the way she smiles in an old photograph of her dancing at a place called Roseland. So Luisa transforms Walter's World of Beauty into Roseland, by decorating it with roses and collages of Mama's customers, who are also in on Luisa's secret.
About the Author
Roni Schotter is the award-winning author of 30 books for children, including picture books, story picture books for early elementary school readers, as well as middle-grade and young adult novels. Her books are concerned with imagination and its power, and the extraordinary courage of children who think for themselves and "dare to reach out to the larger world." Her newest book, Go, Little Green Truck! will be published on February 16th by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Born in New York City, Roni Schotter lived for a time in Brooklyn, New York, then moved to the state that had the smallest piece on her jig-saw puzzle map--Rhode Island. There she learned to love johnny cakes and the sea. She never knew she would grow up to be a writer, but she knew she loved words--their mystery, meaning and power. She was shy and spent a good amount of time watching and listening to the world, using her imagination to make sense of what she saw and heard. Grown up and an author now, she does the same thing today. Like a detective, she listens, looks and sniffs the world, then writes about whatever moves, excites or puzzles her.
Ms. Schotter's books have won various awards, including the Parents Choice Award (for The Boy Who Loved Words and Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane) , the Hungry Mind Review Award (for A Fruit and Vegetable Man) , and the Washington Irving Children's Choice Award (for F is for Freedom and Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street.) Dreamland and A Fruit and Vegetable Man were cited as Washington Irving Honor Book Awards. In 1991 Ms. Schotter received the National Jewish Book Award for Hanukkah! Passover Magic was cited by the National Council of Teachers of Social Studies as a "Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies." Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street was cited by the National Council of Teachers of English as a "Notable Children's Trade Book in Language Arts." Her first book, the young-adult novel, A Matter of Time, was made into an ABC After School Special and won an Emmy Award. Several other books have been adapted for the stage by Stages Theatre Company--Hopkins, Minn.
Many of her books have received starred reviews in School Library Journal, including The Boy Who Loved Words, Mama, I'll Give You the World, Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane and Dreamland (also cited by the Child Study Assoc. and named an Honor Book for the Irma Simonton Black Award by Bank Street College of Education) . About Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street, SLJ said, "Schotter offers blocked young writers some savvy advice . . .[in a] fluently told tale." About The Boy Who Loved Words, SLJ said, "Schotter blends magical realism with a tongue-tingling narrative to create an ode to the power and purpose of language. An inspiring choice for wordsmiths and anyone who cherishes the variety and vitality of language."
