Parenthood through a child’s eyes can’t get any simpler than the way it is presented in this book by Leslea Newman. Mommies are the people who care for you and make sure you have fun. If you have a child under the age of five who you want to see that having two mommies is just regular life, this book should be a part of your home library. It is a board book so if your child younger than three-years-old gets attached in a way that they play roughly with the books, the texts are durable. One mother is white, the other appears to be of multiracial African descent; The child also looks to be multiracial. The book simply carries the reader through a fun day in life; there is no discussion of adoption or biology. When I read Mommy, Mama, and Me with my daughter at age two, she was very interested in clarifying the gender of the child. My daughter asked me several times “Is she a boy or is he a girl?” and she kept trying to figure out which mother was “mommy”. By opening these questions in my daughter’s mind, the book gave, and continues to give us a doorway to discuss having two moms. When this book is read with it’s companion book, Daddy, Papa and Me, my daughter’s questions about the child’s gender elucidate the one problem I have with Mommy, Mama, and Me and the books as a pair—the child in Mommy, Mama, and Me is androgynous and the child in Daddy, Papa, and Me is a boy but what of girls who have two parents of the same gender? I still think these are “must have” books, which are easily accessible and enjoyable for kids of all ages.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended; Age 0-5
Reviewer: Omilaju Miranda