Mommy Pick Me Up

PreS-K—A boy calls on his mother for a variety of familiar reasons, ranging from feeling cold, hungry, and bored to wanting to sit on her lap. In the final pages, the boy at last calls for Daddy, only to ask, "Where's Mommy?" Bold, bright colors; solid, thick black lines; and large word bubbles make the illustrations visually appealing and attention-grabbing. The text is succinct and straightforward, designed for sharing. Unfortunately, with the exception of one page, the mother is a faceless nonentity and is either depicted as only a pair of legs or not seen at all when her son calls on her, making the relationship between the mother and son seem strangely cold and detached. The ending, while meant to be humorous, reinforces stereotypical parental roles, wherein the mother is the sole nurturer and the father is rendered merely a useless conduit to reach the mother. With an abundance of picture books about the relationship between mothers and their children, young readers would do better opting for Jane Cabrera's Mommy, Carry Me Please! (Holiday House, 2006), Laura Numeroff's What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best (S. & S., 1998), or a plethora of other stories on this subject.