MAMA LOVE

Despite opening with a frame just the right size for a baby picture, followed by big, close-up paintings of a mother chimpanzee in the wild holding, carrying, grooming, and otherwise showing devotion to her child, this makes a less sappy variant than usual on the “how much do you love me?” genre. Capturing natural-looking poses and gestures, Mallat often depicts both chimps looking up from the page, inviting viewers to share the love, and composes the brief, rhymed text with more attention to the sound of the words than their comprehensibility to young children: “My Mama loves me. / I’m her absolute delight. / She guards me and protects / me through each day and night.” Little chimps of the human variety will willingly crawl into a parental lap to share this visual and verbal hug. (Picture book. 2-4)