Missing Momma

Drawing from personal experience, per a concluding author’s note, Bingham (The Walk) pens a compassionate work featuring a perceptive child whose mother has returned from military deployment significantly changed. “Before the Army,/ before she went to war, before deployments in Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq./ Momma was the funnest momma in the whole wide world.” The protagonist reminisces about playful times in which mother and child danced to Beyoncé, cooked together, and planted vegetables in the garden—where Momma says, “You not living life unless you’re one with the earth.” Now, though, the narrator reveals, Momma stares out the window all day, no longer hugging or humming, and sometimes exhibits behaviors that feel “mean, mean, mean.” Dragging a bucket of watery dirt inside, the protagonist meets Momma where she is, and the family finds a way to move forward through “days of sadness./ And days of joy.” Boldly stroked illustrations by Bell (Angry Me) add hints of the garden to domestic interiors through this tender work about cycles and transformation. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)