By Aurore Petit

A mother is like a nest, a mother is like a vehicle, a mother is like a fountain... Like a lullaby, these brief phrases accompany every step of a baby's daily life. As the pages turn, the child grows and moves through different stages of learning. The reader follows the child through these small steps, which for them are giant leaps. The mother who was once a nest, a shelter for the newborn, becomes a path, a story, or a spectacle for the child at play.

As the child grows, the distance between them and their mother increases — until the final image, where the child takes their first steps alone.

Originally published in French.

FORMAT

Recommended for ages 4 to 8
Design: Printed with fluorescent ink
Binding: Hardcover
Size: 24 x 17 cm
Pages: 44
Year: 2020
ISBN: 978-956-364-129-5
Book printed on FSC Mixed paper

REVIEW

The birth of a child goes hand in hand with the birth of a mother, something we sometimes forget. Aurore Petit reminds us of this with elegance in Una mamá es como una casa (A Mom Is Like a House). The French author and illustrator portrays a baby's first year of life, but at the same time, a mother's first steps too. With a rhythm reminiscent of a song — each page beginning with the same phrase, "a mom is like..." — the book quickly moves past anything repetitive, thanks to bold, vigorous illustrations, lively linework, and humor woven into the decorations, props and expressions.

With infinite tenderness, highlighted by the roundness of the drawings, the picture book follows, step by step, the everyday life of a mother and her child through visual metaphors that enrich the text and give it meaning. "A mom is like a car," we read under an image of a woman walking briskly with her round belly. "A mom is like an island," we recite as we see mother and child taking a bath, with the small body of the child stranded on the torso of another body, turned into an archipelago. "A mom is like a landscape," suggest the images of a picnic, where the curves of a mother sleeping in the grass take the shape of distant mountains. "A mom is like a window," the now-bigger child seems to say, watching the world through his mother's legs, a solid point of support for learning to walk. "A mom is like a waterfall," the text whispers. You have to look closely at the image to understand the reference to that small tear sliding down a mother's cheek as she realizes how much her child has grown.

Nest, fountain, reward, candy, mirror, ogress, kangaroo, shelter: a mom takes on a thousand forms in this sweet book. Aurore Petit could have made the same book about dads, who aren't absent either. Like a kind presence or logistical support, he holds up the mother-child duo in an enduring way. Fun and moving, Aurore Petit's picture book isn't just recommended reading for little ones, snuggled up next to their parents — it can also be given as a birth gift for any new mother. Either way, it's the kind of book that stays with you for life.

Catherine Makereel, Le Soir, Belgium.

AUTHOR