WHEN MOMMMY WAS MAD

Christopher and Robbie (Mommy Pie, 2001, etc.) return to the scene on a bad day for Mommy. They’re wondering why she is banging pots and pans around, not giving dad a goodbye kiss, and generally radiating bad vibes. At first, the boys are willing to tiptoe about, giving her a wide berth, afraid they have committed some unacknowledged wrong. Then they try a soft approach, hoping for a smile, but get the cold shoulder. Finally, Robbie (with his tonsure of orange hair) gets a bit miffed and starts butting up against his mom, claiming to be a “borkupine,” an unhappy borkupine. Turns out that Mommy is feeling a bit prickly herself, but Robbie has disarmed her. And when kiss-less Dad returns that evening, a little dark cloud hovering over his head, he gets a soft hug rather than a nose full of spines. Mama said there’d be days like this; they’re not the end of the world, but it sure is a relief to be lifted out of them. Mathers takes the term “stick figure” to a whole new level with her characterization of this family. They have egg heads and stick arms, but complete personalities that are perfectly captured with a measure of adorability that is unseemly. And when Robbie takes Mommy’s face in his three-stick hands and explains, “First you sniff noses to make friends. Then you smooth down the prickles,” readers will smile along with them. (Picture book. 3-7)