Maternal Marvels

Maternal Marvels

With mothers, the best approach is to expect the unexpected, especially concerning their offspring.  Mothers are a study in contrasts.  They may be calm one minute as nurturers and fierce in the next moment as protectors.  They may choose to ignore you or chase you depending on the threat you pose.  They know when to keep their children close and when to set them free.
They are master pretenders, architects, providers, healers, and transporters.  Authors Heather Lang and Jamie Harper have collaborated to provide readers with the inside scoop on marvelous mothers in
Supermoms!: Animal Heroes
(
Candlewick Press
, March 7, 2023) with artwork by Jamie Harper.  These creatures perform remarkable feats to supply the best possible life for their children for as long as necessary.
Supermoms are everywhere.
Regardless of their species, size, shape or color, mothers are on the job all day and all night.  You’ll be surprised at the design ingenuity groundhog moms employ in housing their young.  An underground bathroom?
Did you know emperor penguin females leave for up to two months to get food for their chicks?  Some mothers like the bearded capuchin monkey even feed other monkey babies that are orphaned.  There’s nothing quite as strange or amazing as how moms transport their littles.  Baby alligators hitch a ride inside their mother’s mouths to the water.
Some mothers move their charges repeatedly to keep them safe.  There is no use giving a predator a head’s up by staying in the same place.  Other moms along with female family members can build a wall of bodies around a calf to protect them.
BUMS
TOGETHER,
LADIES!
Have you ever seen a bird pretend to have a broken wing to keep enemies away from a nest?
Animal mothers know every day is an opportunity to teach their children to survive and flourish.  Sea sponges are placed on the end of bottlenose dolphins so they can get food from the bottom of the ocean floor without injuring themselves.  You will never guess how many years an orangutan mom teaches their children to get food, select items to use as tools, and to make their beds in the tops of trees.  Supermoms all around the world are everything the word implies.
Authors
Jamie Harper
and
Heather Lang
filled this title with facts and fun.  For each of five supermom specialties, they highlighted at least three animals for a total of eighteen creatures featured.  The fun is added in all the commentary by the youngsters and their mothers shown in speech bubbles.  For example, a red-knobbed hornbill mother uses mud and poop to stuff the entrance to the nest to protect her eggs and chicks.  This is what we read in the commentary.
P. U.!
Some fresh air
would be nice.
Or a fan.
Using traditional and digital collage
Jamie Harper
begins to entertain, engage, and educate readers on the open and matching dust jacket and book case.  Not only do we see the giraffe mom doing what she does best to protect her young, (They really do kick.) b…