Momma Loves Her Little Son - John Carter Cash

Illustrator: Marc Burckhardt
2009
For: babies and toddlers
Rating: 4
Endpapers: See below

Open the cover and glance at the endpapers and you know this will be a pleasant journey. A huge sun smiles at a woman and her little boy - flip to the back and there's the moon smiling at their cozy cabin.

Burckhardt formats the pages in two ways - one is a dark golden-olive toned illustration that covers the entire page - not a bit of white - with the text across the sky or ground. The other is bordered with what looks somewhat like a half circle of sliced pimento olive leaving about a half inch of whiteness with text across the bottom white strip. I think they're oil paintings, but I can't be sure. Lovely.

This book appears almost to be a song - a mother's boundless love for her son. Short and singsongy, a perfect bedtime book for the very young.

(There are a couple of references to praying, but you can't have it all, I guess.

John Carter Cash wrote this to honor his mother, June Carter Cash, and his wife, Laura.