CAN’T NOBODY MAKE A SWEET POTATO PIE LIKE OUR MAMA
By Rose McGee
In 1997, the movie Soul Food was released, and I went to check it out. It had the family dynamics plus the highs and lows in this multigenerational family; at the end of the movie, I would up leaving the theater hungry due to the mouthwatering display of food served for Sunday dinner at Mama Jo’s house, ready to eat my fill at the nearest soul food buffet restaurant. That being said (please forgive my stomach growling at the thought), I bring to you Rose McGee’s children’s book Can’t Nobody Make a Sweet Potato Pie Like Our Mama.
Twins Marie and Landon are opposites on so many things, including their interests. They do agree on one thing: their grandmother’s (Mama) sweet potato pie. They already believe she is magical, and they enjoy spending time with her; when it comes to making the pies, Marie and Landon are Mama’s little helpers.
From the trip to the farmer’s market to prepping the potatoes to making the pie crust, the twins are in competition with each other. The aroma of the finished product, however, permeates the whole neighborhood, as people practically line up for a slice of potato pie, always leaving in a better mood than when they came.
After Mama shares a story from her childhood about potato pie, the twins learn the secret ingredient of her pies on the ride home with their parents…
McGee and Deanes, through story and illustration, give the reader a facet of life shared by many Black families past and present. Like in Soul Food, breaking bread and the preparation of a meal is also a love language, which is why so many people in the neighborhood felt the comfort of Mama’s potato pies. As the founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, thank you for the recipe at the end!
For her work, McGee received the Planting People Growing Justice Book Award for Social Change.
Can’t Nobody Make a Sweet Potato Pie like Our Mama is available through Minnesota Historical Society Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
To Golden Valley’s 2017 Citizen of the Year: thank you for the care and love you put into this book. Change occurs one day a time, one person at a time.
W.D. Foster-Graham
W.D. Foster-Graham is a native son of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received a B.A. in psychology from Luther College, and he was an original member of the multi-Grammy-Award-winning ensemble, Sounds of Blackness. He has also been recognized by the International Society of Poets as one of its “Best New Poets of 2003,” is a guest writer for journalist/author/entertainer Wyatt O’Brian Evans.
