Mama Baby

Baby-Toddler–Raschka’s simplistic storyline depicts mommy-and-me time. On a white background, Raschka’s characteristic watercolors initially show profiles of Mama and Baby facing each other. The following pages have the characters facing each other across the gutter, but only if the book is held partially open. When laid flat on the table, both busts seem to spring from the thick blue line of the gutter, so that the faces are horizontal to the reader, a disorienting visual image. In this mimicking game, Baby repeats Mama’s actions (claps, peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, etc.), until Mama is interrupted by something out of the frame represented only by musical notes. Is it the doorbell or her phone ringing? Following Mama’s departure, Baby now faces a blank verso page. “Mama?” For several pages Mama does not appear, but when Baby cries out for her, she reappears without explanation. The final spreads reset the characters to vertical mid-lines, and Baby and Mama cuddle.