I’ve mentioned several times that my public library puts tags/stickers on picture books to help folks sort them. I mentioned this in part because some of them are fun in themselves, like having a category called “Sparkly.”
The tag my library put on the 1979 picture book Tight Times written by Barbara Shook Hazen and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman is “Life Changes.” Cue the serious music.
And it is. There are some nice touches of humor here, but this is a genuinely serious book. It follows a family through tough economic times, seen through the eyes of a kid. The whole story focuses on the child asking for a pet dog, and the parents putting him off. Along the way, the text gives lots of realistic details about what tight times are like for families: delaying promises, eating cheaper food (including lima beans, which the kid doesn’t like, and who could blame him, really). The mom works now (or works longer), and so the kid has to stay with someone else instead of his mom. And then the dad loses his job.
The black and white illustrations augment the text in quiet, useful ways, like showing the mom sewing a button back on, or the dad hunched over in depression after he loses his job. The mom sends the kid outside so the parents can talk, and while he’s out there, he finds a (very skinny) stray cat. Some woman helps him get the cat out, and tells him he can keep it, so he takes it inside and tries to find something to feed it.
After spontaneous–and realistically unexplained–shared tears, the dad says he can keep the cat, so long as he stops asking for a dog.
The child names it Dog. Both of them are happier, and there’s a drawing suggesting the parents are getting along and in good spirits.
But overall, this is a realistically sad portrayal of a family going through hard times. They aren’t explained, but this would definitely resonate with people today.
