Where's Mum? - Libby Gleeson & Craig Smith

Today Dad picks up everyone from childcare and they think Mum will beat them home. However Mum isn't there when they get back. The children begin imaging what could have delayed Mum using nursery rhymes and fairytales. Perhaps she is helping Jack and Jill to fetch a pail of water, or helping Humpty who had a great fall, or she could be having porridge with the three bears. The longer Mum is delayed the darker the ideas becomes especially when they think about the big bad wolf. When Mum does finally come home, she has a whole lot of friends with her.
It is Craig Smith's illustrations that make this book awesome! Mum meets lots of different characters walking home in their town. And Dad and the children are eating and getting ready for bed. I love that their house is just like mine – toys strewn everywhere, dishes left in the lounge, clothes in a pile waiting to be folded. It makes me feel normal! My kids loved looking at the pictures and laughing at what Mum is getting up to.
9/10

My Aussie Mum - Yvonne Morrison

You've got to admit that we Aussies are a little bit different. We live for the weekends, love a good barbie with family and friends, as long as the footy is on in the background in winter and the cricket in summer. We are supposed to be a laid-back bunch who's catch cry is 'no worries' or 'she'll be right'. So......what makes an Aussie Mum? According to Morrison she is a woman who is enthusiastic and involved in everything. She's a ripper who is tough as nails, always looks ace even in trackie daks, a battler who is busy day and night, a cricket fan, and someone who always knows when her kids are chucking sickies.
This book is a celebration of mums and is cute in the way it uses colloquial sayings. However these were lost on my younger children who didn't understand what these meant. It was a bit of a worry that my four year old didn't know what 'ace' meant. I must add it to my vocabulary again. The illustrations by Nicola Bright were humorous and added to the meanings of the story. They portrayed a quirky woman who was passionate about raising her kids, looking after herself, and getting involved in everything.
Overall, it was an ace concept for a book, however, the Aussie sayings were not known well enough by the children the book is aimed at. 6/10

Monkey Puzzle – Julia Donaldson

Such a delightfully funny book that we loved, especially the wonderful ending.
Baby monkey has lost his Mum somewhere in the forest. A lovely blue butterfly want to help monkey to find her and asks monkey to describe her. What follows is to the reader a hilarious selection of mothers that the butterfly thinks may belong to monkey – an elephant, a python, a spider, a parrot, a frog and a bat. Butterfly isn't silly but she is just using baby monkey's descriptions to help find his mother.. Finally in frustration baby monkey exclaims “Butterfly, butterfly, can't you see? None of these creatures looks like me!” The poor butterfly is very confused as she had no idea that baby monkey's mother looked like him because …........ you guessed it. None of butterfly's babies look like her!
The illustrations are done by Axel Scheffler who has successfully teamed up with Julia Donaldson for many of her books (The Gruffulo, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale). They are big and bright jungle scenes and I especially like the big bright eyes of the animals.
The story is told is such a way that the reader begins to realise that there is something important that baby monkey is leaving out of his description of his mother and the children get excited at the anticipation of how monkey's mother will be found.
We loved it. 9/10

I Spy Mum! - Janeen Brian

It's May and in Australia that means Mother's Day. In tribute to all those mother's out there I am going to review some books about Mum's this month

Whenever we have a few minutes to wait, say at a doctor's clinic, or in the car a game of eye spy usually helps to pass the time away. When the kids were younger it was often I spy something red".... or blue....or green. Once they got older it progressed to "I spy something that starts with P".... or S.... or T. Sometime we'd have a great laugh when the kids who were just learning their alphabet sounds got it slightly wrong. Like clock starting with K or car that starts with S (because my son used to stay sars instead of cars.
So reading a book that incorporates a game that we all know is a winner. The little boy in the story spies something that starts with M and that is Mums. But which one is his. He spies many Mums doing lots of things such as making and baking, bopping and shopping, riding and sliding, but none of them belong to him. Where could she be?
Chantal Stewart's illustrations are delightful. She brings to life mum's from all walks of life, different shapes and sizes, different countries and doing a variety of activities with their children.
We enjoyed the gentle rhyming words and the illustrations with details that allowed us to play I spy within the pages. 8/10