A Chair for Always

Rosa is excited that her Aunt Ida is having a baby-she’s going to have a cousin!

Rosa settles into the velvet roses, certain it is a lucky chair that will keep her company until morning.

There is plenty of time to daydream about sharing strawberry ice cream cones and teaching the new baby to read. Every coin in the big jar took months of saving: the seat holds too many memories, she decides, and nothing else could ever take its place.

But when the baby comes, Grandma suggests they get rid of the family’s beloved armchair so that baby Benji can play on a nicer one. But Rosa puts her foot down: this chair is a member of the family, she says, and it will be with them always.
Welcoming a Baby: Aunt Ida shows Rosa how to support eight-pound Benji so his head does not bobble.Found Family: Rosa and her Oak Street Band friends squeeze into the armchair to play a lullaby for the newborn.Multigenerational Living: Grandma stands ready with big scissors to replace the worn seat, but a creative compromise is found instead: a new cover is sewn on.Also by This Author: A Chair for My Mother, More More More, Said the Baby and Cherries and Cherry Pits.