Thank Ewe, Mom: I Love Ewe: An Ode to Animal Mothers by Aaron Zenz

MY MOM'S A HEN--

BUT LOOK AGAIN!

HENS LIVE UNDERWATER, TOO!

No cluck cluck for these animal mothers; glub glub and blub blub  is more like it for crab and lobster moms, also known as hens.

Some feline animal mothers have elegant, mellifluous appellations, like the lioness, tigress, and leopardess.  And check out Mama Fox's fine moniker: she's a vixen! A goat mama is a nanny, and so a boisterously loud one is a "hootin' nanny," right?

Some animal mothers borrow their names from humans: Mrs. O'Possum is a Jill, and Ma Donkey is a Jenny.  Equine moms are always mares, but mother bears share their titles with mother pigs--they are both sows. And if a baby hollers for Mama Cow, a bovine won't be the only one to answer: Mama Moose, Mrs. Seal, and Mother Hippo and Rhino will report for cow duty, too.

Human mothers have lots of names, too--mom, mum, mommy, mummy, ma, mama, momma, mither, and that's just in English!  But a mom that is a sheep is the only one to which her baby is likely to say I Love Ewe: An Ode to Animal Mothers (Walker, 2013), Aaron Zenz's clever rhyming book about  what we call animal moms.

And for the upcoming Fathers Day, pick a passel of papas in Zenz' newest, a tribute to animal dads' names that is  just as clever and comic--Hug a Bull: An Ode to Animal Dads (Walker, 2013). Zenz points out that the bull that gets a hug could be a gentleman bovine or or perhaps a father giraffe, walrus, moose or alligator! While a mother duck or goose is predictably a hen, her male consort is called drake.

As in his companion book, 27 animal parents are featured in Zenz's pleasant, curvy illustrations. Other book by Zenz include his treatise on baby animal names, Chuckling Ducklings and Baby Animal Friends, his very popular The Hiccupotamus,  and its companion book, The Chimpansneeze.  Having fun with words while coming up with new vocabulary terms is Aaron Zenz's specialty.