Me & Mama
Author & Illustrator: Cozbi A. Cabrera
Simon & Schuster
Ages: 4-8 years old
This is a quiet book that explores and helps to establish, deep emotional bonds.
With sumptuous, lyrical language that will melt even the coldest heart, Cabrera gives you a sweet peek into a lovely day shared between a daughter and mother. Inspired by her own daughter, Cabrera illustrates (both in words and in her Caldecott Honor Award-winning illustrations) those ethereal bonds between children and parents–capturing in the concrete, what exists only in time and essence.
Comb hair, Mama says again.
I don’t want the bumblebee barrette.
I don’t like the bumblebee barrette, I say.
Mama closes her hand.
She knows I mean just today.
She gives me the blue barrette.
Comb hair, I say.
In the everyday, Cabrera finds the simple connections that children make with the world around them, yes; but also how those connections can be amplified through parental influences in subtle and beautiful ways (bringing to mind the classic Sondheim lyric: Children will listen . . . and learn). Take for instance:
We sing out loud to sky. Sky is taller,
taller than the trees.
Mama says a song is highs and lows.
This is a quiet book that explores and helps to establish, deep emotional bonds. It is exceptional. Perhaps Cabrera could be persuaded to lend her immense talent to illustrating a similar book where the protagonists are a father and son. Alas, however, those picture books are rarely if ever published. In the meantime, I will be reading her book to my son, as an example of a wonderful parent/child relationship.
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More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
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