A young girl tells about a day in her family’s store and home in Guatemala City. Every day customers of many heritages—speaking Spanish, Chinese, and Mayan—come to buy cloth, buttons, and thread in colors like parrot green and mango yellow, and dozens of other items. While the girl’s parents and their friends talk about their hometown in China from where they emigrated many years ago, she and her siblings play games on the rooftop terrace, float paper boats, and make shadow puppets under the glow of flashlights. When the store closes, the girl dances to celebrate her day. Amelia Lau Carling’s thoroughly American children loved her childhood stories about Guatemala so much that she wrote them down for others.
Related: China, Guatemala, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction
- ISBN: 9780803720442
- Author: Carling, Amelia Lau
- Published: 1998, Dial
- Themes: Childhood, immigrant, store
- Descriptors: China, Guatemala, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction
- No. of pages: 32
Mama& Papa Have a Store is a great story with beautiful pictures. I read this story to my students to show them even when you move away from your home country you can still remember the way life was and share your thoughts and feelings with others. The Chinese family lives in Guatemala City but they spend time with their Chinese friends to share stories and laughter. After I read this story to my third graders, my Chinese American student came to me with a story of the day he was told he was moving to America. I was very surprised because up to that point he really hadn’t shared many things about China with me or the class. I was happy that he felt comfortable sharing his story with me and I think it had something to do with this wonderful story.
Mama & Papa Have a Store by Amelia Lau Carling is about a young girl who tells what it is like to live day in and day out at the store, which is also her home, that her family owns in Guatemala City. People from all over, speaking many languages, come to buy various items from their store. Throughout the pictures of the story we are able to visualize what life is really like in this far away place. While the adults are working, the children are busy playing up on the roof terrace, making paper boats and floating them down the street. At the end of the day, the young girl dances in the middle of the store to celebrate yet another day, so happy and so content.
When the author was talking about the children sitting at the counter and doing their homework when the lights go out, this was something that a lot of my first graders had a hard time with because of the abundance of technology these days. They had a hard time imagining what their play looks like. The children entertained themselves and explained how in very vivid ways thanks to the pictures that were so detailed, which helped us all make connections in one way or another.