Your mother didn't do that! by Sharon Holt
Ill. by Brian
Lovelock. Walker Books, 2009. ISBN 9781921150173.
(Age 3-7) Holly is unhappy when her mother has to go out, but Dad
consoles her
with a bedtime story about the night she was born. When Holly asks if
she was
hatched out of an egg, Dad tells her that a hen would have fluffed up
her
feathers to protect her and her mother didn't do that. Holly follows
with
questions about what would have happened to her if her mother were a
kitten, an
owl, a shark, a kangaroo and a seahorse. She discovers how mothers look
after
their babies and learns that her mother held her 'close to her heart
and cried
and cried' with happiness.
Children will have fun predicting just how different animals look after
their
babies and will enjoy the humour of the text, especially how sharks eat
their
some of their babies for dinner and a father seahorse keeps his baby in
his belly.
The warmth and love depicted between Holly and her father and mother
jumps out
of the page both from the text and the illustrations, which are
delightful.
Luscious greens, yellows and blues provide a background to engaging
pictures of
Holly and her Dad imagining the bond between different mothers.
This is a lovely book, not just for bedtime or read aloud, but it would
be
useful when studying baby animals, or family relations.
Pat Pledger