Ties That Bind: Just Like a Mama by Alice Fay Duncan

Mommy and Daddy live miles away. I wish we lived together. Maybe one day.... I live with Mama Rose now. She's just like a mama to me.

Mama Rose combs the tangles out of her hair and buttons her up in her winter coat, and waves to her as she goes off to school.

"I love you, Lady Bug!"

Mama Rose gives her a watch for her fifth birthday and teaches her how to tell time. She shows her how to make her bed and how to dribble a basketball.

And when she is six, Mama Rose gives her a yellow bike so they can ride through the park together and see the birds.

She tells me, "One day, child, you will spread your wings and fly!"

And like a mama, Mama Rose makes her do her chores, marching her back upstairs to make her bed and put her clothes away. Like a mama, Mama Rose makes her eat her veggies before she gets a piece of chocolate cake.

"Carol Olivia Clementine! Peas are good for you!"

And when Carol Olivia Clementine does well, Mama Rose tells her...

"SUPER JOB!"

Mama Rose is just like a mama to me.

In her new book, Just Like a Mama (Simon and Schuster, 2020), author Alice Fay Duncan celebrates what she calls "fictive kin," those people who are in loco parentis, taking the place of mothers and fathers to children to offer love and nurture and guidance when their natural parents cannot. Illustrator Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, granddaughter of Caldecott artist Jerry Pinkney, adds gentle, warm, and affectionate illustrations which show the love between Carol Olivia Clementine and her Mama Rose. Kirkus Review adds, "A beautiful story of love and kinship, so needed for the many children living apart from their nuclear families."