Before Alarm Clocks, There Was Mary Smith!

Mary Smith

Written and Illustrated by Andrea U’ren

Douglass and McIntyre Ltd., 2003

28 Pages

Historical Fiction

          Have you ever wondered how people knew when to wake up before alarm clocks? This book tells the story of Mary Smith, the knocker-up, whose job was to shoot peas at peoples windows to wake them up. She woke people up all across her European town. She even had to wake up the mayor! My only question is who woke up Mary Smith? 

          U’Ren uses acrylics to create her two-page illustrations. I love the use of color in this book. When you begin reading the book, it is early morning and still dark outside, and the colors reflect that perfectly.  When it becomes daylight, the pages seem to light up with the bright colors. I also like that Mary Smith’s clothes are the color of a pea and so is the title on the cover foreshadowing the story. This book features informal text placement. The fly paper features an actual picture of Mary Smith shooting a pea in 1927. What a great way to start the book! 

          This book would be appropriate for a second grade read aloud, and an independent reading book for third grade and up. This could be used in history to talk about the time period of the 1920s, and students could compare and contrast the differences between then and now. Students could write about whether they would like to be waked up by their alarm clock or by someone shooting a pea at their window and why. This book would be great book to use to teach vocabulary, the words could include knocker-up, outskirts, and dreadful. This book has not received any awards.