Mim’s belly-hum jam is one of the highlights of Christmas for young Saraleen and Royce and their father, Pap. Just one taste, and Pap starts “whistling a deep, hooty tune.” But this year, Pap is off in New York City, helping to build the subway, and he won’t be home for Christmas. “Let’s make a batch of belly-hum for Pap,” Mim suggests to her children to cheer them up. They send the jam off to Pap in New York, where the mean-tempered foremen of the dig site have ordered everyone to work on Christmas Day. But when Pap gives Mean and Evil, as the workers call the two foremen, a taste of Mim’s spectacular jam, they change their minds — Mim’s jam is that good. Andrea Davis Pinkney deftly blends warmth and humor in this story about a proud, loving African American family in 1915. An author’s note provides a very brief history on the building of the New York Subway. Brian Pinkney used luma dyes and acrylic on scratchboard to create his distinctive illustrations. (Ages 5–8)