A CHAIR FOR MY MOTHER

寧靈

一場突如其來的火災(zāi)燒光了家里的一切，樂觀的外婆、勤勞的媽媽和懂事的女兒一起，開始了努力攢錢、重建家園的過程。最后，她們攢夠了錢，買回了心心念念的紅沙發(fā)。媽媽用自己的勇敢、勤儉和自信，為女兒打造了心中的家園，成為女兒的榜樣。繪本中充滿了令人感動的勇氣、信心和團結(jié)向上的力量，一家人為共同目標(biāo)而努力的樣子是多么美好！

母親對于孩子和家庭來說，有著怎樣的重要性？家，對于一個孩子的成長而言，又有著怎樣的意義和價值？今天，我們一起來讀繪本《媽媽的紅沙發(fā)》，去一探究竟吧。

My mother works as a waitress in the Blue Tile Diner. After school sometimes I go to meet her there. I wash the salts and peppers and fill the ketch-ups.

Every day when my mother comes home from work， I take down the jar. Then we push all of the coins into the jar.

Sometimes my mama is laughing when she comes home from work. Sometimes she’s so tired and falls asleep. Some days she has lots of tips. Some days she has only a little. But each evening every single shiny coin goes into the jar.

We sit in the kitchen to count the tips. Usually grandma sits with us， too. Whenever she gets a good bargain on tomatoes or bananas or something she buys， she puts by the savings and they go into the jar.

We are going to take out all the money and go and buy a chair. Yes， a chair. A wonderful， beautiful， fat， soft armchair.

That is because our old chairs burned up. There was a big fire in our house. All things burned.

That wasn’t such a long time ago.

My mother and I were coming home from buying new shoes. We were walking to our house from the bus. Then we came to our block.

Mama yelled， “Where’s mother？”

I yelled， “Where’s my grandma？” Grandma was all right. Our cat was safe， too. But everything else in our whole house was spoiled.

The rooms were very empty.The neighbors brought pizza and cake and ice cream. And they brought a lot of other things， too.

Everyone clapped when my grandma made a speech. “You are all the kindest people，” she said， “and we thank you very， very much. It’s lucky we’re young and can start all over.”

That was last year， but we still have no sofa and no big chairs.

So that is how come mama brought home the biggest jar she could find at the diner and all the coins started to go into the jar. Now the jar is too heavy for me to lift down.

On my mother’s day off， we took all the coins to the bank. The bank exchanged them for ten-dollar bills. Then we took the bus downtown to shop for our chair.

Finally we found the chair we were all dreaming of. We set the chair right beside the window with the red and white curtains.

Now grandma sits in it and talks with people going by in the daytime. Mama sits down and watches the news on TV when she comes home from her job.

After supper， I sit with her and she can reach right up and turn out the light if I fall asleep in her lap.

一家人，在遇到生活中的挫折與苦難時，不怨天尤人，而是用樂觀的態(tài)度、辛勤的勞動和長遠的計劃去追求生活的美好和希望。溫暖的紅沙發(fā)，成為這個家庭親密關(guān)系的紐帶，相信她們未來的生活會越來越好。