When one parent leaves on a trip, even for a short time, it can seem like forever to a young child. In this sweet and lovely picture book, a young girl shares her feelings when Mommy is away on a business trip and she and Mama wait for her return.
Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle, by Nina LaCour and illustrated by Kaylani Juanita (Candlewick Press), starts on a Monday with the family having breakfast together, “Mommy and Mama and me in the middle,” before Mommy leaves on a business trip. The girl and Mama then continue their routines, to the library, school, and the grocery store (and even a special movie night), but the girl feels the difference of doing so as two instead of three. Talking with Mommy on the phone just isn’t the same, and the girl expresses to Mama how much she misses Mommy. Mama hugs her and she starts to feel better.
Towards the end of the week, the girl starts to prepare for Mommy’s return with a welcome-home banner and a gift of flowers. When Mommy returns, however, the sense of loss (and perhaps a little anger) that the girl has been feeling wells up in her, and at first she refuses Mommy a kiss. Mommy explains, however, how much she missed the girl, too, and all three hug, with the girl in the middle, just as she likes.
Michael L. Printz Award winner (and queer mom) Nina LaCour’s first-person narration beautifully captures the complex emotions of a child experiencing a parent’s temporary absence. The text never overexplains, but is sometimes lyrical about details of the weather or neighborhood or how much the girl misses Mommy, “as deep as a scuba diver down in the ocean and as high as an astronaut up in the stars.” One scene at school also gently reinforces the message that other children may also be missing someone they love: a sister away at school; a papa in another country; a cat who ran away.
The illustrations by Kaylani Juanita, a queer artist who also illustrated the Stonewall Award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother, enchantingly capture the characters’ emotions and the warm details of their family life. The child and Mommy are Black, and both have paler skin and hair patches that suggest vitiglio. Mama is White, with purple hair and large tattoos of flowers and strawberries on shoulders and legs.
Thoughtful and beautiful in both words and pictures, with no special point being made about the fact that this is a two-mom family (but offering important representation of such families), this is a book that many families should come to treasure.