Ya Viene Mama

It's after six, and Mama has a long commute home from work--she must make her way through the streets, past a pet store, down to the train, through the rain, past the streetlights, and up the walk to her urban brownstone. Meanwhile, Modern Dad (complete with flowered apron) has plenty of time to make a pizza for dinner and feed the baby, all the while supervising two boys, a dog, and a cat. This singsong story, with "Mama's coming home" as the refrain, marches forth through time as rhythmically as the clock going "tick tock" on the wall: "Boys are sprawling on the floor / Baby's crawling toward the door / The sidewalk throbs with footsteps / Mama's coming home" We've encountered the creative teamwork of Kate Banks and Tomek Bogacki before in The Bird, the Monkey, and the Snake in the Jungle and The Turtle and the Hippopotamus. Bogacki treats his human subjects with intriguing angles and rather delicious colors as he neatly juxtaposes the chaos of home with that of the busy outside world. Young children will certainly relate to both the anticipation of and preparations for a parent returning from work: "Kisses flying / No more crying /Mama's at the door." (Ages 3 to 6) --Karin Snelson