MY MUM GOES TO WORK

A very young boy explains his life with a working mother. “My mum goes to work, but I know she still loves me,” begins the simple tale. Gray’s brief text works well with Milgrim’s delightfully rudimentary illustrations, which look like they were drawn by the (unnamed) little boy himself, then painted in watercolors. With his faithful dog, he runs through all the activities that his mum wishes she could be doing with him—cuddling, painting pictures, swinging, etc. When mum gets home, she attempts to make up for lost time, performing all the mentioned activities with reckless abandon; she pushes the swing so hard that the little boy ends up lashed by the ropes and swing to the high branch it hangs from. As mum drives off to work again, the boy delivers a final rib-tickling zinger. Simple enough that early readers will be able to handle the text with assistance. (Picture book. 2-7)