Down Memory Lane: Your Mommy Was Just Like You by Kelly Bennett

YOUR MOMMY WAS BORN BRIGHT-EYED AND FUZZY-TOPPED, JUST LIKE YOU.

Grandma pulls out the treasured family photo album and begins to share pictures inside with her granddaughter--snapshots of her mom as a baby giggling as her toes were tickled, a toddler clutching her favorite lovey doll--Whiney Baby--and taking her everywhere she goes, even on a ride with Uncle John.

Mom grows up to be an adventurous little girl--one day her mom's sweet potato, and the next a terror sent to do time-out in the corner. One day she is a frog in flippers; the next day she is a fairy with wings and wand. Mom starts to school, worried that she still can't quite tie her shoes, but she works hard and learns what she needs to be a mom herself.

YOUR MOM WAS BOUNCY AND TWIRLY, FEARLESS,

JUST LIKE YOU.

SHE PRIMPTED AND SPANGLED HERSELF IN KOOKY COSTUMES,

JUST LIKE YOU.

Kids are fascinated with photo albums because visualizing their parents as kids, doing the things they like to do, gives them an understanding of the meaning of growing up and a glimpse into the river of time of which they, too, are a part.

Grandma brings it all home, though, when she hugs her own dear daughter and explains how it is for moms--and grandmoms:

YOUR MOMMY IS MY BABY.

AND NO MATTER HOW BIG SHE GETS, SHE WILL ALWAYS BE MY BABY.

JUST LIKE YOU.

Kelly Bennett's new Your Mommy Was Just Like You (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011) is a great book for sharing around Mothers Day, dealing as it does with the chain of love passed down from mother to child through the generations. Bennett and illustrator David Walker's latest collaboration joins its artful companion volume, Your Daddy Was Just Like You for boys, both of which make wonderful Mothers Day selections.