Day: June 14, 2021

Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos

| Tasha
Cover image for Your Mama.

Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantara (9781328631886)

This picture book cleverly riffs on the “Yo Mama” jokes. Each set of pages starts with a full joke, including “Your Mama so sweet, she could be a bakery” and “Your Mama so strong, she like a marine.” Then the story takes over and explains how this little girl’s mother is all that and more. Examples like her high heels shoes that no one else can walk in, being public library VIPs, and making the perfect costumes. This mother loves road trips, good jokes, and makeup. She stands up against injustice, has friends everywhere, and loves her daughter more than she will ever know.

The humor at the center of the book, taking often negative “Yo Mama” jokes and turning them on their head is a real pleasure. The Latinx protagonists are both strong women with the text slowing with English and Spanish. It’s a pleasure to see a fully realized mother, who is modern, focused and still able to be a great Mama. This woman has real dimension on the page, allowing readers to see their own amazing mothers here too.

The art in this book shows the warm love between mother and daughter, from bouncing on couch cushions, to living room performances, to being out and about together. The setting is urban and friendly, the streets bustling with friends and relatives. From her long curly hair to her high heeled shoes, this is a mother with plenty of attitude and self confidence to share with her daughter.

A celebration of Mamas both sweet and spicy. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Versify.

Sunshine by Marion Dane Bauer

| Tasha
Cover image for Sunshine.

Sunshine by Marion Dane Bauer (9781536214116)

Ben lives with his father and his faithful imaginary dog, Sunshine. This summer, he’s going to spend an entire week with his mother, whom he hasn’t seem since he was three. She lives alone on an island in northern Minnesota. As he and his father journey to meet her, Ben struggles to ignore Sunshine, since his father thinks Ben is too old to have an imaginary friend. After journeying to his mother’s island home by canoe, Ben finds himself struggling with his anxiety and often unable to speak. He has so many questions he wants to ask her and has imagined many conversations together, but nothing comes out. He desperately wants to figure out how to get her to return to living with them. Instead of asking, Ben spends his days on the island, giving his mother time to read. After a disastrous expedition to see some bears and another harrowing solo journey in a canoe, a disaster hits the island and a path to forgiveness is formed.

Bauer is such a remarkable writer. Her books are invitingly brief for young readers and also offer real depth of emotion. In this novel, she shows the struggles of someone with anxiety who is often asking “what if” rather than diving in. She doesn’t allow it to be superficial, instead really exploring what it feels like. At the same time, readers will realize that Ben is incredibly brave and fueled by anger that he won’t acknowledge. His connection to Sunshine is fully realized, from the way they curl up to sleep together to her position in the canoe to their ongoing friendship in a new place.

Ben is a complex character and so are his parents. His father is fastidious, clearly anxious himself in ways that Ben can’t articulate. His mother is a remarkable character in children’s literature. A mother who left her child behind for reasons that are hinted at but not fully revealed until later in the novel. Yet she is given the space to be warm, kind and caring while also being rather distant and reserved. She is many things, and also far more than she realizes.

A book full of dangers, adventure and heart. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Candlewick.