Books with author Donald Davis

Learning to drive occasions emotions ranging from reasonable caution to unbridled terror. Learning under the watchful eye of one's spouse is an added challenge; undertaking the task with anxious children in the back seat can only heighten the intensity. Davis recalls his mother's driving lessons through the objective eye of a patient and restrained young man of seven, in contrast with his little brother, whose oft-shouted refrain -- “You're going to kill us all!”-- rings still in memory. Through the writer's unerring eye, Mama is endowed with presence enough to stay one step ahead of the craftiest child. In these stories narrated by a growing boy who arrives eventually at an appreciation for Mama's wisdom, tact, and -- most of all -- love, Mama is always the calm in the center of chaos. Developed in live performance at storytelling festivals coast-to-coast, these stories consistently prompt delight, amusement, and recognition. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Mama Learns to Drive 20:06 2. Aunt Ester Saves a Little Boy's Life 7:05 3. Peas and Carrots 19:38 4. Doobies 7:16

I'm sure that you're up there amongst those stars, Mama, Then he smiled and sighed happily, Ehh, Ehh, Life is going to be absolutely wonderful after all, isn't it, Mama . . . This story tells of a boy named Thabo, and later, a young man, who goes through many painful trials and tribulations in his boyhood but who also experiences the love of his father and, ultimately into his young adulthood, the love of his wife. After losing his much loved mother to a long, agonising illness, he is faced with the constant demands to Yiza, Thabo! Come here, Thabo! by his stepmother and his teacher both of which precipitate a surprisingly resentful reaction to what he feels is his mother's 'desertion' of him. Unusual as feelings of resentment and anger are in the grieving process, the story makes them believable in terms of Thabo's specific experiences.