From Publishers Weekly
One day I counted your fingers and kissed each one," opens McGhee's (
A Very Brave Witch) understated yet emotion-charged expression of a mother's love and hopes for her child. Reynolds's (
The Dot) spare, wispy pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations depict the narrator and her daughter sharing everyday moments that mark milestones in the girl's maturation: the mother watches snowflakes "melt on your baby skin" and crosses the street as her little one grasps her hand. A transitional spread first reveals the youngster on a tricycle, aided by her mother, and then riding solo on a bicycle ("Then, you were my baby,/ and now you are my child"). Quietly the emotion builds, as the mother thinks of the future in store for her daughter, its joys and sorrows: "Someday I will stand on this porch and watch your arms waving to me until I no longer see you." Here Reynolds depicts the woman, older than she was at the book's start, on the left, gazing forlornly across the white expanse of the spread. The narrative comes full circle, as the parent looks ahead to a day, "a long time from now," when her daughter's own hair will "glow silver in the sun." Handlettering by Reynolds augments the story's deeply personal quality, which will resonate with both new and seasoned mothers. All ages.
(Mar.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2—A mother speaks to her young daughter of milestones to come in her life, first recalling her infancy ("One day I counted your fingers and kissed each one"), and then contemplating her future ("Someday you will swing high—so high, higher than you ever dared to swing"), her adulthood ("Someday I will watch you brushing your child's hair"), and her old age ("Someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun. And when that day comes, love, you will remember me"). The pen, ink, and watercolor sketches have the same soft sentimentality as the text. The artist's use of white space and hand-printed letters gives a childlike innocence to the book. However, its greeting-card quality will appeal more to new mothers and gift-givers than to children. Barbara M. Joosse's
Mama, Do You Love Me? (Chronicle, 1991) is a better choice for libraries.—
Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
See all Editorial Reviews