In My Heartby Molly Bang
It's common for my son and I to disagree on books. His taste isn't exactly discriminating. He's as fascinated by the phone book as anything else I show him.
Occasionally, however, he spots something I miss, for all my persistent snobbery. This busy jumble of a book got his attention and kept it, despite the lack of a coherent story line and enough saccharine to cause organ failure.
As Mommy heads off to her job as a veterinarian, a window opens in her heart for her son. First we see her day, then his, and he's ever "in my heart."
When we're apart,
I miss you.
But then ...
I look inside my heart,
See you sitting there and
Hello Happy! Happy jumps right back in my front door.
Bang uses retina-scorching oranges and a feisty palette for her mixed-media art, which spreads in full bleed across most pages with details jammed in every which way. There's a full array of activities, sick animals and ethnic urbanites, plus the first letters on each page become part of the illustrations. Most impressive is a "Y" that holds Mom and Dad as they fold laundry.
Longtime readers (all two of you) know I always award points for multiculturalism, but I still would've tossed this back on the pile as well-intentioned eye candy, geared mainly toward overly clingy kids. Um, well, except I have an overly clingy kid, okay?
And one day, as his father drove off to work, Seth announced, "But I'm always in his heart."
Damn, I hate when I'm wrong.
Rating: *\*\*\
Nothing like a kid to crumble the granite that forms in our hearts over the years.
Posted by: brettdl | January 12, 2006 at 01:45 PM
Aw. It *is* hard to sit on our hands when our kids make (to us) tasteless choices, and it does sting when they turn out to be right!
Good on you.
Posted by: anne | January 14, 2006 at 07:48 AM