When Mama Goes to Work

PreS—Four young children comment in alternating scenarios on the workdays of their mothers and their own parallel activities. "When Mama goes to work,/she wears her working clothes./She packs my lunch./She combs her hair./She takes her special bag." On the facing pages, a mother in medical garb and a little girl slip a love note and a toy spider into each other's lunch container as midday surprises. On the following page a different family appears, and a little boy and his toddler sister go off to day care with a mother in business garb. The third mother drives a construction vehicle ("She works with tools and gets things done"). Mothers and children miss one another during the day, but all keep happily busy. At day's end, they go home or to do errands for pleasant times together. In a cozy finish, all four children are shown fast asleep in a quadrant view. The simple art features flat figures done in colored outlines. Awkward choices in the depictions of characters' mouths sometimes give them an odd appearance. While the overall tone is cheerful and inclusive, the alternating mother/child scheme can be confusing. The theme of loving relationships between young children and working mothers is likely a useful choice for nursery school classes.—Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston