MOMMY'S 26 CAREERS

A mommy can be anything from an actress to a zoologist.

Using an alphabet framework, a young girl with light-brown skin catalogs her mom’s careers. The jaunty, intensely colored illustrations do not contain the letters (a complete alphabet appears at the end), but each career is capitalized in bold within the short poems that appear in every double-page spread. The poetry includes the occasional vocabulary-challenging word forcing the rhyme: “Next she was a Ventriloquist, / her puppet never made a gaffe. / She did such amazing voices, / she made a million people laugh!” Sometimes it seems downright labored: “But Mommy loved adventure, / so she became a Kayak Pro! / Hurtling down rushing rapids / taught her to just go with the flow!” Diverse careers appear, with some, such as Miner and Quarterback, generally performed by men. The stylized mother and daughter are in each illustration, along with a cute black-and-white cat. (In fact, the book is dedicated to a deceased cat.) There are lots of colorful visual details, but the poetry will make some adults wince as they read it aloud. The sentimental last spread could induce some to use this for Mother’s Day: “26 careers my mom has had, / showing me all that I can be! / But the job she says she loves the most / is being a Mommy to me.”

No matter how much women move forward, things seem to stay the same.