My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story

Longtime collaborators Curtis and Cornell deliver a tonic for every mother who's ever felt underappreciated; their shock-headed narrator ascribes powers nothing short of godlike to mommy dearest. "She lit up the sun, so bright and so round./ She puffed out each cloud, stretched trees from the ground." Mom has plenty of irreverent qualities, too—she's as good at moonwalking as she is at giving hugs. Cornell's paintings are endlessly exuberant. When Curtis writes, somewhat opaquely, "She buzzed every bee. She spun every spider," Cornell has the duo creating larger-than-life shadow animals, while a goth older sister, who makes recurring appearances, casts a surly snake shadow on the opposite page. For all the time spent celebrating the idea that "My mommy's good at everything," surprisingly few lines are devoted to the actual relationship between mother and child. Rather, the story reads like a laundry list of the improbably fantastic things mothers are capable of. And while such praise is totally deserved, it begins to feel uncomfortably immodest. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)