Grandma Lena’s Big Ol’ Turnip by Denia Lewis Hester

Grandma Lena’s Big Ol’ Turnip, published by Albert Whitman & Company, is written by Denia Lewis Hester and Illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic.     

This story is about a meal served by a kid’s grandmother. Her grandmother is from the South in the United States. They called the cooking style of African Americans from the south “soul food” or Southern-style cooking. Her grandmother uses turnips, mustard or collard greens with a piece of ham, bacon or pork fat in it. Corn bread and a pot of beans. The ones the author mentioned is Great Northern or black-eyed peas.

This is the type of food African Americans were served by their grandparents who in turn served it to there kids. They grew accustomed to this eating. They believed this is called good eating. I will remind the reader; if you grew up eating like this, still eat like this and feed your kids the same. Guess what? This is not good eating at all!!!

This choice of food are some of the leading factors of our illnesses. I know it is hard to believe when I tell you almost everything named above is actually bad for you. However, that is another story that I will leave for another post…

How many people have a garden in their backyard? It is quite rewarding for those who like to grow and eat their own fruits and vegetables. In my neighborhood if you do not want to use your own backyard to grow a garden there is a community garden available for people to use. It is about a half an acre.

This story takes place mostly in the backyard of Grandma Lena’s house. Baby Pearl was of course a baby and she use to call Grandma Lena’s biggest turnip, “Big Potatoe.”  I enjoyed reading this story and what it stands for.

So when Grandma Lena grew her biggest turnip and when it was time to pull it out the ground she had to ask for help from her family. She asked each one of them one by one and they came to assist. She asked the dog to come help and he came to assist. None of this worked, the turnip was to much for them to pull out the ground. Along came Baby Pearl who they had all forgot to ask to help. She asserted herself found her spot and began to carry her weight. The turnip came out the ground.

A family has to stick together and include everyone if they want to be successful. That is what I took from that part of the story. Grandma Lena rewarded everyone she could family and friends with the meals she made with the turnip. She had a saying that can go a long way, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right.” Make a lot of sense doesn’t it?        

                                                                              Work Cited 

Hester, Denia Lewis. Grandma Lena’s big ol’ turnip/ written by Denia Lewis Hester; illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic  p. cm.  Summary: Grandma Lena grows a turnip so big that it takes her entire family to pull it up, and half of the town to eat it. Includes a note about cooking “soul food.”  ISBN 10: 0-8075-3027-1 (hardcover) ISBN 13: 978-t0-8075-3027-6 (hardcover) ISBN 10: 0-8075-3023-9 (paperback) ISBN 13: 978-0-8075-3023-8 (paperback) [1. Turnips- Fiction 2. Cookery, American-Southern style- Fiction. 3. African Americans- Fiction. 4. Tall Tales.] I. Title: Grandma Lena’s big ol’ turnip. II. Urbanovic, Jackie, ill. III.Title. P27.H4377Gr 2005 [E]--- dc22 2004018580