Mommy's Little Star

Bingham, Janet. 2008. Mommy's Little Star. Illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw.

This one obviously falls into the cutesy and sweet category. There is nothing wrong with that. Some people *love* sweet, gushy, cutesy books. I myself have fallen for a few of those through the years. I don't love each and every book in that category however. And some picture books border between cutesy and dinky. And I really don't like dinky at all.

What is Mommy's Little Star all about? Well, it's about love, and it's about family; but it's also about nature. I would say observing nature and appreciating life and loving one's family. It's a conversational book between a parent and child. (Much like Guess How Much I Love You is a conversation between parent-and-child.) It stars a pair of foxes. (In this case a Mama Fox and her son.)

I liked the illustrations by Rosalind Beardshaw. They were cute and sweet. But they stopped short of dinky-ville.

The text itself I was more on the fence about. I'd read it one day and think it was cute. A bit too sugary perhaps but workable. The next day I'd think it had crossed the line and was dinky. And then the next time I was back to thinking it worked. Every time I've picked this one up, I've come away with a different reaction. Which is why it has taken so long to get a review up. I've been shuffling this one around for about six or seven weeks now. Saying, "self, do I like this one or not?"

Anyway, it is what it is. A nice cutesy-wutesy feel good story about the parent-child bond.