Thursday, July 10, 2008

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.

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