Missing Mommy: A Book About Bereavement

Luckily, the title and subtitle of Cobb's first picture book provide adults with all the information they need to decide whether to share it with young children. This is not a book that many adults will get through dry-eyed, and Cobb does an admirable job with a very difficult subject. A young narrator explains that his mother went away -- he is not sure where -- and that he and his father and sister are trying to manage without her. The book begins with a dark, heavy illustration of black umbrellas on a rainy day. The only bright spot in the picture is our narrator, hanging on tightly to his father through what is visually a somber and confusing moment. From there the book opens up with spacious white pages and simple illustrations that look as if they might have been drawn by a child with crayon and marker. The narrator has a er's limited understanding of the world -- he searches all through the house for his mother and wonders why she didn't take her clothes when she went away. His father eventually explains that the boy's mother has died and cannot come back, but that they can talk about their memories of her. Cobb puts a tremendous amount of emotion in deceptively simple facial expressions and postures and gives her readers small moments of visual humor to balance the terrible weight of the subject. The boy's grief is palpable, but the family's survival is certain. The final illustration of the boy watering tulips, his mother's sweater tucked under his arm, provides a hopeful and moving conclusion. maeve visser knoth