Reviews and Info 

ISBN: 9780966711400
Publisher: Warbranch Press, Inc.*
Year: 1998 (currently in its 2nd printing)
Author and illustrator: Kate Salley Palmer
Illustrations: water-color pencil (Prismacolor)
Reading level: Grades K-5
Retail price: $8.95
*First published in hardcover in 1991 by Simon and Schuster (ISBN: 0671735667)

Reviews:

“Affectionate portrait of a person who once played a valuable role: the maiden great-aunt. Setting her reminiscence a generation or two ago, Palmer mentions what Great Aunt May didn’t have (husband, children) before describing the home into which she welcomes young relatives and her comfortable nature and pursuits.”

Kirkus Reviews, 1991

“Alone and childless, great-aunt May has everything as far as her great-nieces are concerned. As they count her blessings, sunny colored pencil drawings, fond and blurred as memory, highlight special details. Simple and slow-paced, A Gracious Plenty celebrates one version of the Good Life.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1991

A GRACIOUS PLENTY 

This book is about Kate’s great aunt May Ziegler, who received her master’s degree from Columbia University in New York in 1907, and taught educational psychology at the University of Georgia until the early 1950’s. After retirement, May moved back to her native Orangeburg, SC, and Kate’s family moved in with her for a few years. Kate’s book warmly recalls many fond memories growing up with her sisters and with her very interesting great aunt.

Kate often draws upon her life to create her books. A Gracious Plenty was first published by Simon and Schuster in 1991, and after it went out of print, Kate got the rights back and Warbranch Press published the book in soft cover in 1998.

Student artwork (Niblack Elementary School in Lake City, Florida - 2003) of Great Aunt May from A Gracious Plenty

Teachers have related how much A Gracious Plenty has helped them teach memoir writing to their students. Also, when Kate speaks to students at schools she advises that they should listen to their older relatives because there usually is something that they have experienced that will enrich the student's life in some way.