Ten Cents A Pound

2019 Shortlisted Alberta Literary Award

PUblisher: Second story Press                                                RELEASED: April 18, 2018
illustrator: Josee Bisaillon

“Ten cents a pound is what I’ll earn,
To buy these books and set you free.”

A young girl is torn by her desire to stay home with her family and the familiarity of their village, and her desire to go to school and discover the world beyond the mountains that surround them. Every time the girl insists that she will stay, her mother repeats that she must go—that there is more to life than labor in the coffee fields. Their loving exchange reveals the struggles and sacrifices that they will both have to make for the sake of the young girl’s future. The sweet, simple text captures a mother’s love and her wish for a life of opportunity for her daughter.

You can order a copy today at any of your favourite book store or through Amazon or Indigo!

https://secondstorypress.ca/kids/ten-cents-a-pound 

Letters:

“I read your book “Ten Cents a Pound” recently and I would like to thank you and congratulate you for this very simple and touching story. It is a story that won’t be easily forgotten by me. I came to Canada as a landed immigrant in 1988 from Flanders (Belgium).
Your story is like the story of my grandmother who I never knew, I never sat on her warm lap (she passed away long before I was born) however there are so many mutual similarities with the mama in your story and my grandmother. Unbelievable. My grandmother was not able to read or write. She signed documents with an “X” and her daugther (my mom) was the first person in my family in Brussels in 1930 to graduate high school in the family.
 
We all dream of better worlds,” – 2021
 

Reviews:

http://www.cbc.ca/books/12-canadian-picture-books-to-look-forward-to-in-the-first-half-of-2018-1.4512236

“In alternating spreads containing lyrical verses, a young girl and her mother consider the child leaving home to attend school. Tran-Davies’ succinct and elegant text conveys heartfelt emotions…. This celebration of the mother-child bond is sure to spark discussions of childhood poverty.” – Booklist

“A compelling tale of love and sacrifice told through a series of rhythmic verses and poignant observations. In a story at turns both whimsical, with beautiful fluttering butterflies and flowers, and gritty, with stooped backs, worn hands, and tired faces, two generations of women dream of a better tomorrow.” – Foreword Reviews

http://www.librarybound.com/collection-development-tools/staff-favourites/helen/110-helen-aug-2020

https://canlitforlittlecanadians.blogspot.ca/2018/05/ten-cents-pound.html

http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol24/no18/tencentsapound.html

http://gallopinto2.blogspot.ca/2017/12/review-ten-cents-pound.html

https://www.theproblemsite.com/book-scrounger/2017/10/ten-cents-a-pound

http://www.missjennysclassroom.com/2017/11/ten-cents-pound-book-review.html

http://babybookworms.blogspot.ca/2017/11/ten-cents-pound-bookwrap.html

http://reviewingroom.blogspot.ca/2018/02/ten-cents-pound-by-nhung-n-tran-davies.html

https://chrikarublog.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/book-review-ten-cents-a-pound/

School Library Journal
March 1, 2018
 
This beautifully written story set in an unnamed Asian country has a poetic quality that matches its tender tone. The young girl dreams of going to school but she is afraid to leave her mother, her village, and all that is familiar. Her mother works in the coffee fields and the girl worries about the woman’s “coarsened and scratched” hands, her “calloused and blistered” feet, her back that “bends and stoops in pain,” and her eyes that are “blurred and strained.” Each time the girl mentions a reason she must stay her mother repeats the phrase, “Ten cents a pound is what I’ll earn.” The illustrations are wonderful and enhance the theme. There is a realism in the artwork, but also a bit of whimsy as butterflies fly and flowers that bloom whenever the child opens a book or dreams about her future. VERDICT A touching lesson about parental love, sacrifice, the importance of education, and overcoming obstacles to create a better future.
 
—Peggy Henderson Murphy, Wyandot Elementary School, Dublin, OH
School Library Journal

(School Library Journal 2018-03-01)

Children’s Books Heal

https://kissthebook.blogspot.ca/2018/05/ten-cents-pound-by-nhung-tran-davies.html

https://tuetego.net/article/641354

National Reading Campaign review  

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2018/05/07/family-matters

Education Echo Chamber book review by Christina-Reid

I’ll Always Love My Mama: 22 picture books to celebrate mom on mothers day or any day

Lets Talk Picture Books with Josee Bisaillon

The Brainstorm Plus: Top 10s of 2018

Gathering Books: Favourite Reads Across Quarterly

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Book Recommendations

I wrote the story after having visited a boarding school for girls in Dak Glei, Vietnam. I was moved by the struggles that children in developing countries face just to go to school. I not only wanted to tell their story to increase awareness in our own children of how things are in different parts of our world, but also to show the love between a mother and her child.