Mama Makes Up Her Mind

March 29, 1993
White is known to fans of National Public Radio's All Things Considered for her endearing true stories about rural South Georgia where she lives and teaches the first grade. Her first book, which brings together some 50 of these short pieces, rich in humor and folksy charm, should delight her listeners, as well as readers new to her storytelling. Many of the selections deal with White's mother, who has never seen a movie as good as Midnight Cowboy , and other relatives and friends with similar eccentric wrinkles in their personalities. Other pieces are culled from the events of White's everyday life--gardening, her school's annual Christmas Party. First serial to Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and Miami Herald Sunday Magazine.

Starred review from March 15, 1993
Solely for reviving the "voice" of the storyteller, National Public Radio should be funded in perpetuity. The winningest monologuist NPR's given us may be Bailey White. She's the first-grade teacher from south Georgia with the husky voice with the crack in it that makes you want to say, "Dear! put some honey lemonade on that throat and rest it awhile." She lives with her prodigious mama in a house that, listening to her, you'd think must be Fibber McGee's closet blown up to mansion proportions. She drove the same car faithfully for about 20 years, bought another that conked out kinda quick, then a third with the help of none other than Gen. Robert E. Lee. She knows people like the lady who saw the "Titanic" en route to the iceberg, and has relatives like Aunt Belle, who trained an alligator to come bellow for a treat. "And" she's a volunteer fireman ["sic"], the smallest on the force. She tells us all about it on the radio and all over again in this book. She's marvelous on the air, but dang'd if she isn't funnier, livelier, more stylish in the aural theater of the reader's mind. Or read her stuff out loud the way you think it ought to be inflected. Anyway, she's a great humorist. ((Reviewed Mar. 15, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)