Mama's Coming Home

by Kate Banks, Tomek Bogacki

Mama’s back from work!

“Mama’s coming home,” says Papa. And that’s all it takes to get this rambunctious household – two boys, a baby, a dog, and a cat – to settle down. As they pitch in, preparing dinner and straightening up the house, Mama crosses the bustling city, eager to be with her family. Tomek Bogacki’s clever illustrations and Kate Banks’s rhythmic text capture the spirit of activity and anticipation as finally, at the end of the day, their two worlds come together. Children will delight in sharing in the celebration of this everyday homecoming.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Kids

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2003

About the author

Kate Banks has written many books for children, among them Max’s Words, And If the Moon Could Talk, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and The Night Worker, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She grew up in Maine, where she and her two sisters and brother spent a lot of time outdoors, and where Banks developed an early love of reading. “I especially liked picture books,” she says, “and the way in which words and illustrations could create a whole new world in which sometimes real and other times magical and unexpected things could happen.” Banks attended Wellesley College and received her masters in history at Columbia University. She lived in Rome for eight years but now lives in the South of France with her husband and two sons, Peter Anton and Maximilian.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/katebanks

Reviews

[Britt Kitko]

Summary: It's after six, and Mama has a long commute home from work--she must make her way through the streets, past a pet store, down to the train, through the rain, past the streetlights, and up the walk to her urban brownstone. Meanwhile, Modern Dad (complete with flowered apron) has plenty of time to make a pizza for dinner and feed the baby, all the while supervising two boys, a dog, and a cat. This singsong story, with "Mama's coming home" as the refrain, marches forth through time as rhythmically as the clock going "tick tock" on the wall: "Boys are sprawling on the floor / Baby's crawling toward the door / The sidewalk throbs with footsteps / Mama's coming home" We've encountered the creative teamwork of Kate Banks and Tomek Bogacki before in The Bird, the Monkey, and the Snake in the Jungle and The Turtle and the Hippopotamus. Bogacki treats his human subjects with intriguing angles and rather delicious colors as he neatly juxtaposes the chaos of home with that of the busy outside world. Young children will certainly relate to both the anticipation of and preparations for a parent returning from work: "Kisses flying / No more crying /Mama's at the door." (Ages 3 to 6) --Karin Snelson

Audience:
- Reading level- Early- Not a lot of text on a page but definitely not limited to HFW's
- Genre- Fiction
- Topic- working mothers, family appreciation

Curricular uses: Shared reading- The repeated line "Mama's coming home" could be chimed in by the students. Lessons could be taught through the book because of the way that there is not a lot of text on the page, but somewhat difficult words are within the short sentences. The teacher could use this to their benefit when teaching students to use different kinds of verbs.

Social Issues: Gender roles- the dad takes care of house and kids while mom works

Literary elements: Repeated text reminds reader the main event of the story, Every other page of the story shows the mother coming home and the other is of the family preparing which is a form of foreshadowing, third person narration with few speaking parts from individual characters

Interactions and counteractions of text and image: Images interact with the text to show how busy this family is. The busy family preparing for their mother is expressed through rushed cooking, cleaning, and then there are disasters. The mom is constantly shown running through the city to get to her family who is anxious about her arrival. Both the text and images are of equal importance to this story.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I highly recommend this picture book. The rhyme is wonderful, the print is nice and big, and there isn't too much text on each page, so it is great for new readers OR for a bedtime story for non-readers. The pictures are lovely and tell much of the story themselves, so there are many conversations that parents can have with their kids, no matter what reading level they are on.

Also, the premise involves a mom coming home from work while the dad and kids look forward to her arrival, make dinner, set the table, clean up, etc. The author doesn't make any kind of mention of the gender reversal, it just IS. In this family, Mama comes home and Dad makes dinner. It's a lovely way to embrace non-traditional gender roles with children without making a whole "issue" of it.

One of my favorite library finds in a long time!

[Aspasia]

Dad and kids get the house and dinner ready for Mom.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate to have a stay at home mom for most of my life but I had to work when I was raising my kids. This books outlines the important things that only moms can do.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!!! This book proves that it is not always the mother that is home with the kids and does the household chores!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book showcases a father taking care of the children while the mother comes home from work. Lotsa interesting words like "hastening". Good rhymes.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for 2-3 year olds

[Melissa De Wever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute tale with an underlying theme of nontraditional gender roles. The illustrations are beautiful and colorful and the story is sweet and rhythmic for young readers.

[Joe Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

i kind of related to the book as I was a stay at home dad.