MAMA'S WEDDING

A young girl learns how families can be remade in beautiful, welcoming new ways.

“Today is a big day.” Mama is marrying Alex, Cindy’s daddy, and she asks Ruby and Cindy to be flower girls. Cindy replies with an excited “Yes!” but Ruby’s whispered assent is a little less certain. After getting dressed and rehearsing with Granny, Ruby returns briefly to her Daddy Daniel’s house, where she lives most of the time, to pick up his wedding gift for Mama and Alex—and wonders what he must be feeling. Wedding preparations are well underway back at Mama’s house, and Ruby watches and thinks—about everything she doesn’t yet know about Alex, about Mama’s happy tears, about Granny’s wise words. “It’s time,” Mama announces, and step by step, Mama, Alex, Ruby, and Cindy become family. “Love can bloom in different ways.” Working in gouache, colored pencil, and pastel, Yuen has crafted softly expressive illustrations that empathically enhance the thoughtful words on the page—Ruby’s resonating concern for Daddy Daniel, Granny’s quiet support, Ruby’s flower-making memories with Alex, the clear sororal bond between Ruby and Cindy, the photos and pictures that capture the past and hint at wonderful new beginnings. All characters appear to be of East Asian ethnicity; a single wedding guest is cued white.

An affecting, gentle celebration of new marriage, a not unfamiliar, life-changing event for many young children.