A CHAIR FOR MY MOTHER

宁灵

一场突如其来的火灾烧光了家里的一切，樂观的外婆、勤劳的妈妈和懂事的女儿一起，开始了努力攒钱、重建家园的过程。最后，她们攒够了钱，买回了心心念念的红沙发。妈妈用自己的勇敢、勤俭和自信，为女儿打造了心中的家园，成为女儿的榜样。绘本中充满了令人感动的勇气、信心和团结向上的力量，一家人为共同目标而努力的样子是多么美好！

母亲对于孩子和家庭来说，有着怎样的重要性？家，对于一个孩子的成长而言，又有着怎样的意义和价值？今天，我们一起来读绘本《妈妈的红沙发》，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与苦难时，不怨天尤人，而是用乐观的态度、辛勤的劳动和长远的计划去追求生活的美好和希望。温暖的红沙发，成为这个家庭亲密关系的纽带，相信她们未来的生活会越来越好。