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PRESCHOOL
Straub, Emma

Mama Hug

40 pp. | Penguin/Rocky Pond | January, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9780593618592 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593618608 $10.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Stevie Lewis. Snuggle up with this cheerful day-in-the-life depiction of a mother and her baby. Mama is clad in overalls, ready for an active just-the-two-of-us day with her child. Simple phrases, all containing the word mama, grace almost every page, and rhyming lines create a rhythmic cadence. Affection permeates the scenes as baby first awakens (“Mama cuddle / Mama swing // Mama dance / Mama sing”), then plays inside and out all day (“Mama horse / Mama hug // Mama chair / Mama tug”) before settling down at night with a bath and a book (“Mama pillow on a Mama bed // Mama dreams in baby’s head”). Straub’s verse focuses on toddler-friendly activities such as playing peek-a-boo, naming body parts, walking and climbing, laughing, and eating; through it all, “Mama love grows and grows.” The mainly warm color palette in Lewis’s digital art reflects the tenderness shared between these two throughout the day, while a cool palette accompanies bedtime calmness. An ideal read-aloud (à la Raschka’s Mama Baby, rev. 3/20) for mama-obsessed toddlers.
Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

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