Mama, Do You Love Me?
Author: Barbara M. Joosse
Illustrator: Barbara Lavallee
Chronicle Books, 1991
Story and Illustrations: This morning Mirette dug out Mama, Do You Love Me? and I read it to her several times. I don't think I could EVER get bored of this book. The illustrations are so lovely. The Mama is huge, but in a really comfortable way. I may be reading into this, but I think it shows that Mama will always be there as this big, bold, and beautiful presence (or perhaps it's just me feeling better about my own post-baby body). Anyway, this is one of those books about the child challenging the mom—will you love me if I put salmon in your mittens, and lemmings in your mukluks? And Mama assures her that there is nothing her child could do that would diminish her ever-present love.
The language and musicality of the book is lovely. With such evocative yet simple language, I do feel transported to a cold land—one of puffins, Inuits, ravens, whales, umiaks, ptarmigan eggs, salmon, and polar bears. Ahhh! I can just feel the chill in the air.
Background and VERY interesting stuff: The illustrator Barbara Lavallee is a Mid-Westerner who has lived in Alaska for many years and is very passionate about the Alaskan culture. She has illustrated several other books that are listed at this site (including Papa, Do You Love Me?): http://www.answers.com/topic/barbara-lavallee and is also known for her lush paintings: http://www.anniekaills.com/art/lavallee/prints1.htm.
Barbara M. Joosse has a warm, sweet website. In fact, for a second I wondered if I had accidentally visited a non-famous grandma's site. http://www.barbarajoosse.com/index.html
Though the website is lots of fun, she has several amazing articles on reading. I highly recommend them. I learned a lot and what's more—they are short and very readable. Here are some of the concepts that she explores: boys need to learn that they can be fierce and compassionate at the same time; that you shouldn't be afraid of reading long books to young children—it gives them time to focus on the pictures and to hear the language; that musicality is important; that words are playful; that a good book sounds jazzy and delicious; that books become familiar friends; that when you share a "reader's hug," your child is close to your heart and it taps into something; that books share metaphors and form a bridge into sleep (something that ancient cultures understood well); that stories can show hard situations, but should ultimately be hopeful; that children want to belong and by sharing a book we help them walk through life together.
All this in four articles! She says all this better than I can, so it is definitely worth it to give them a read. http://www.barbarajoosse.com/images/TheReadersHug.pdf
I also found out that Barbara joined a band and is recording music to go with her books. What a funky grandma! I checked out that website and the site appears under construction but here is the link: http://www.doublecake.net/author.html
To think, this morning I read Mama, Do You Love Me? to Mirette and it was JUST a book. I knew nothing of the author's awesome philosophies or that she joined a band and I definitely wasn't planning on writing this long of a post!
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