I used to spend the night with my Mema (grandmother) every Friday night. We watched Jack Benny together and ate pink beans (pork’n’beans) and hamburger patties for supper. And on Saturday morning I got to have Sugar Pops for breakfast! Those Friday night visits were some of the best times of my childhood.

In Saturdays and Teacakes the boy narrator has a similar weekly date with his grandmother. “Every Saturday, I got up early, dressed, and rolled my bicycle out of the garage.” The nine/ten year old boy in the story pedals his bike all the way to grandmother’s house, and:

“Every Saturday Mammaw was there, sitting on her old metal glider–criiick-craaack-criiick-craaack–sipping a cup of Red Diamond Coffee and waiting. She was waiting for me. No one else. Just me.”

The boy goes on to tell how he and Mammaw spent their Saturdays: eating breakfast, mowing the grass, working in the garden, tomato sandwiches for lunch, and baking sweet teacakes together. This sweet and evocative story of a Southern country boyhood never mentions the exact location or setting of the story, but the author grew up mostly in Alabama. So I’m choosing to think this is a story about an Alabama boy and his Alabama grandmother.

The illustrations in the book are full color paintings, showing all of the activities that the boy and his grandmother do together. These vibrant pictures really bring the rural Southern small town and the boy’s family life and love to life. And if you want to extend the story and the learning a little more, Peachtree Publishers has a recipe for Mammaw’s teacakes at their website.

You can find a read aloud version of this story on YouTube, or you can check to see if your library has it. If you live in Houston, you can check out Saturdays and Teacakes from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. It’s a great story for all boys and girls who have a close and loving relationship with their Mema or Mammaw or Grandma or whatever you might call her.