“My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life” by Kate Feiffer, ages 4 to 7, $16.99: Moms can be so embarrassing, at least when they’re kissing you in public. Author Kate Feiffer has a hilarious time playing with a common childhood fantasy of trying to figure out how to get your parents out of your life — at least temporarily. Feiffer’s story offers breezy reassurance that parents are good to have around when you’re lonely or scared or just need a hug.
“My Mom and Me” by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, ages 2 to 4, $7.99: Capucilli uses a lilting rhyme to highlight the diversity of mothers. The book has an unusual design — just five double-page spreads, each with a foldout page that continues the illustrations and text. In each of the spreads, Capucilli focuses on a different culture by noting how “mother” is said in each one: “mami” in Spanish or “ima” in Hebrew.
“Most Loved in All the World” by Tonya Cherie Hegamin, ages 7 to 10, $17: Don’t be fooled by the picture-book format. “Most Loved” isn’t a book for preschoolers. Hegamin brings African-American history alive for older children. She uses a first-person narrative and black dialect to tell a compelling story of a mother who is a slave and a secret agent on the Underground Railroad and who sends her own young daughter off with others to freedom and a better life.
“Mama’s Kiss” by Jane Yolen, ages 3 to 6, $14.99: This isn’t a sappy ode to maternal devotion; instead, Yolen uses sprightly rhymes and sometimes-earthy images (for example, a burping baby) to tell what happens when one of Mama’s kisses goes astray.
Illustrator Daniel Baxter portrays the kiss as a set of red lips with wings and using a red line and arrows to show its path through the pages.
“Mother Poems” by Hope Anita Smith, ages 8 to 12, $16.95: Gut-wrenching and beautifully written, the author and artist details a girl’s love for her mother and her crushing grief when her mother dies. Written as a series of poems, Smith’s story is, by turns, sad, funny, devastating and joyous. Smith, illustrates “Mother Poems” with expressive cut-paper collage.
“Mommy Calls Me Monkeypants” by J.D. Lester, ages birth to 2, $7.99: Lester and illustrator Hiroe Nakata join forces to create a delightful board book for the youngest readers. Bouncy rhymes and lighthearted, bright illustrations make this a winner for babies and toddlers. Parents, get ready to read this one over and over.
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