Samuel Narh and Freda Narh (authors of A Kite for Melia) team up once again in this warm, dreamy tribute to the bond between a mother and her son. Milko, a young boy living in Bolivia, misses his mother terribly; she’s on a year-long trip to Ethiopia, absent from his daily life since the first hint of the rainy season. Now the sun beats down orange flames on the dry land, and Milko, along with his sister Abena, can’t seem to make the days go by fast enough as they wonder “When is Mama coming back?”

The authors render a careful portrait of sorrow and longing in this purposeful tale, and Milko’s ache at his mother’s absence is palpable. He dreams of her gentle embrace, “as tender as a petal,” as he, his father, and Abena traipse through their empty days without her, somehow managing to accomplish quotidian tasks like haggling at the market and getting breakfast on the table without her steady hand. Nothing’s quite the same without Mama: the porridge boils over, the cat and dog are always after each other, and Milko misses the salteñas Mama always buys him at the market. Abena struggles with sadness in her own way, crying in a “shrill voice” that startles Milko and stumps his father, prompting Milko to wonder if her tears are “a longing for the gleam in Mama’s eyes.”

Milko sheds tears of his own, in private, as he falls asleep at night, holding a mirror “to watch those secret tears roll down his cheeks.” Of course, Mama returns just in the nick of time, and the reunion is delicately depicted by Knatko’s graceful watercolor illustrations, when Mama’s laugh “as deep as the forest slips into [Milko’s] room.” Young readers and adults alike will treasure this testament to family love.

Takeaway: Touching, dreamy portrait of a son’s bond with his mother.

Comparable Titles: Suzanne Collins’s Year of the Jungle, Patrice Karst’s The Invisible String.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A