Review #27: Mommy Poems

Dad:  Happy Mother's Day!  And for today's pick...
Lily (age 6):  We are reading "Mommy Poems."
Dad:  Compiled by John Micklos -- compiled means he gathered them up.  And it's illustrated by Lori McElrath-Eslick.
Gracie (age 8):  Another Lori?
Dad:  And we know her.
Isaac (age 10):  We do?
Dad:  I don't know if you'll remember.  Actually, I think you guys have only met Mrs Lori once briefly.  She's very nice.  Now looking at the book, how do you think she makes her illustrations?
Lily:  Paint.
Dad:  Does she paint tightly with lots of detail?
Gracie:  No.  You can barely see the faces.  It makes it the coolest of awesome.
Dad:  Are the colors realistic?
Lily:  One boy has a green arm.
Dad:  But it works!  You don't even notice unless you look for these things.
Gracie:  It just seems normal.
Dad:  I love these loose sketchy paintings because they are so different from the way I draw, which is tight and controlled.  I like seeing people who are really good at the stuff I can't do.
Gracie:  Why do you draw tight?  Why can't you just draw looser?
Dad:  I don't know.  It freaks me out.  It makes me nervous.  I don't feel comfortable being out of control.
Gracie:  Well, Mrs Lori is beautiful out of control.
Dad:  She's very confident in painting loosely.
Isaac:  If I tried to do that, it would make it look too strange.
Dad:  She must have had to practice a lot.
Gracie:  What if she didn't?  What if she gets everything perfect on her very first try.
Dad:  I bet she'd tell you she doesn't get things perfect every time.  I bet she makes lots of mistakes.
Gracie:  But she has to be able to make perfect pictures.  Because these ones are perfect.
Dad:  But do you think she had to train in order to get that way?
Gracie:  I think she was always perfect at making pictures.
Isaac:  No, no, no, no, no, no.  Train.  She trained.
Dad:  This book is full of poems about moms.  Did anyone have a favorite one?
Gracie:  Chocolate!
Dad:  That one was called "Flavors" by Arnold Adoff.
Lily:  Read it again, please...
Dad:  "Mama is chocolate: you must be swirls of dark fudge, and ripples through your cocoa curls; chips and flips of sprinkles on your summer face."
Gracie:  Read it ten more times.
Dad:  Why is that one your favorite?  Out of all these poems, this one is the most abstract.
Gracie:  Because it's about chocolate.  See, my mouth is watering.
Lily:  I'm hungry.
Dad:  What if it didn't mention food.  What if it would have compared the mom to something else equally pleasant... like a butterfly.  Would you have liked it still?
Gracie:  I would have still liked it.  I don't know why I like it.  It just sounds nice.
Dad:  So what does it mean "Mama is Chocolate"?
Isaac:  It's comparing the mom to something the kid also really likes.  Or... maybe the mom is a chocolate maker so she is gooey and sticky.
Dad:  Do any of these poems remind you of your Mom?
Lily:  She tucks me in at night.  And takes care of me when I'm sick.
Dad:  Why does she do such things?
Lily:  Because she loooves me.
Gracie:  One poem reminds me of me.  It's the one where that girl is like, "We're having WHAT for dinner?"
Dad:  "Dinner and Dessert" by John Micklos.
Lily:  That girl looks like Gracie.  I think Mrs Lori copied you.  It is you.
Gracie:  Because I'm picky.  Picky-wicky.
Dad:  Does Mom make you eat anyway?
Gracie:  Yes.  Because she looooooves me.
Lily:  She wants you to be healthy.  And have strong bones.  So she makes you drink milk because she looooooves you...
Gracie:  I love Mom, even though I don't eat dinner.
Lily:  Once I ate dinner without complaining.
Dad:  How about the poem with the mom who saves things?  What does your Mom do with the special things you make for her?
Lily:  She keeps them in her room.  Forever!
Isaac:  800 pictures.
Lily:  She saves them because she looooooves me.
Gracie:  I know why in one poem the mother takes her daughter out for a drive...
Dad:  Why.
All the kids:  Because she looooves her...
Dad:  Why does Mom do everything she does?
Kids:  ...because she looooooves us.
Gracie:  Motherhood is love.
Dad:  Is that nice to have a book all about mothers?
Isaac:  Mothers deserve to have their own book.  Because they do so much for us.
Gracie:  I'm going to write a whole book about our Mom.
Lily:  She is nice.  She is pretty.
Gracie:  She's a hottie.  That's what Dad says.
Isaac:  She makes dinner.
Gracie:  And she cleans the house for us.
Lily:  She takes care of us when we are sick, and she tucks us in at night, and she reads us books sometimes, and she helps us do school, and once when we were cold she gave us hot cocoa.
Gracie:  I know why she did it.  Because she looooooves us...
Lily:  She's glad she had a "Lily" because she likes me.
Gracie:  She keeps us home for homeschool, and we don't have to be away from her.  I am glad about that.
Lily:  And sometimes she lets me put on my sparkle lipstick which is pink, blue, and purple.  She loves us!  Woohoo!
Isaac:  Thanks for being our mom!
Gracie:  Thank-you for giving birth to me.
Dad:  Yep - I was there.  She did it.
Lily:  I love you Mama!  And I have something else... you are a hottie, Mama!  And I love you double around the world one hundred and fifty-two hundred times.

"Mommy Poems" compiled by: John Micklos Jr
Illustrator: Lori McElrath-Eslick
Published, 2001: Boyds Mills Press
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Here are poems and pictures for the Mom in our house!

Crunches and munches
of good things to eat
Mommy puts them on my plate
sometimes with a treat

- by Lily

When I look at her face
I see chocolate brown eyes
And pretty pink lips smiling down at me

When I'm around Mom
I feel as nice as a bubble
And as colorful as a rainbow

- by Gracie

Wishes for Mom

I wish you had chocolate towers
I wish you had a thousand flowers

I wish you had never ending coffee
And could swim with dolphins in the sea

I wish you had a room full of ice cream
I wish you had the mansion of your dreams

I wish you had self cleaning dishes
I wish you had 1000 more wishes

But all I can give you is a hug and a kiss
I hope that is what you want for your wish

- by Isaac