From School Library Journal
PreS—In this calm, reassuring picture book, a toddler stays with an older woman, presumably his grandmother, while his mother cares for a variety of farm critters. The rhyming text queries each animal mother, "When will you come back?" and the creature answers by assuring her offspring that she will return as soon as her work is done. "When will you come back,/Mama cow, mama cow?/After I graze beneath the bough/Where grass grows green, mooo, mooo!/I'll come back, come back to you." The story ends with the boy's mother returning after completing her chores and giving him a hug. Goembel's soft, realistic illustrations reinforce the gentle mood of the text. In the tradition of Kate Banks's
Close Your Eyes (Farrar, 2002) and Margaret Wise Brown's
The Runaway Bunny (HarperCollins, 1942), this book about a mother's boundless love makes a good choice for sharing at bedtime, or for soothing young listeners who have faced a particularly challenging day.—
Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Goembel's soft, realistic illustrations reinforce the gentle mood of the text... a good choice for sharing at bedtime. --
School Library Journal
