WHAT MOMMIES LIKE

This sequel to What Daddies Like (2017) gives mommies their due.

In this second outing for Nevin and Six, an anthropomorphic mother-child bear pair spends the day together. “Mommies like big hugs. / Mommies like kisses. // Mommies like ‘Good morning to you!’ // Mommies like field trips. / Mommies like bike rides. // Mommies like the library, too.” The child rides a two-wheeler behind Mommy (both wear helmets) to the library, where they join other parents and children (including one in a wheelchair) for some organized (but sometimes loud—“hullabaloo” is rhymed with “kazoo,” which they play on the way home) activities. Drumming, cooking and eating together, reading, baths, cuddles, and “you” round out the things mommies love. This book is one best shared in an intimate setting, as Six’s illustrations include delightful but tiny details: Mommy loses her enthusiasm for her spaghetti dinner as her cub chatters on about worms. As in the title dedicated to dads, the stocky bears have big noses and the tiniest of ears (some readers may not identify them as bears at all), and the gender of the child is ambiguous.

This duo is sure to reflect some of what readers’ own mommies enjoy and to possibly give them ideas for additional ways to spend time together.