The Beast Inside: ROAWR! by Barbara Joosse

One dark and snarly night when Papa was away and Liam was a-snuggled in, he heard a forest crack and snap! His heart thumped. DANGER!

Barbara Joosse newest, Roawr! is a fresh and creative take on the same subject Maurice Sendak covered so well in Where the Wild Things Are.

Like Max, Liam is a boy whose mama is a bit tired of his rambunctiousness. "Use your inside voice! No sticks in here! And NO double cake!" She sends him off to bed and is soon asleep herself.

But his father is away, and mama is in danger from whatever is out there in the dark! Liam is just a small boy, but a brave one, and he realizes that it's up to him to protect his mother. As he assembles the materials to build a fort, the forest begins to take over even in his own room, with huge, jungle leaves upholstering the chair and covering the wallpaper, and rocks and sticks all around. And there is that sound again. ROAWR! Still, fortified with provisions, even the forbidden double cake, Liam confronts the huge bear out there, constructing a deadfall and taking the big, loud beast prisoner in the deep pit.

But the bear is now more scary than before, even confined in Liam's trap.

Bear! He rumbled in the hole, slashing the moonlight bloodily with his claws and bellowing. ROAWR!

"Now what?" Liam shivered. He was just a boy!

But Liam is a clever boy who figures out how to tame a snarly, hungry bear, and when the bear's loud ROAWR is tamed, Liam takes himself sleepily back to bed where both he and Mama are safe for the night. In his no longer forested room, Liam is secure and ready to sleep, toy bear by his side.

Now back at home, Liam slippered off his fuzzy feet and crawled into his cave to sleep. zzzzzzzzzz!

In artist Jan Jutte's evocative illustrations, little Liam, like Max, tames his inner and outer wild thing just in time for bedtime, banishing the forest inside. Joosse, who has shown that she understands the ways of boys in her I Love You the Purplest has reworked this theme delightfully in her story of a boy who puts his inner ROAWR! to sleep.

Listen to Mama: Mama Says: A Book of Love for Mothers and Sons by Rob D. Walker

The simple wisdom of mothers shared with their children is the premise of Ron Walker's just published Book Of Love For Mothers And Sons (Mama Says), breathtakingly illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

This generously-sized book offers double-page spreads of mothers and young sons from many cultures--Cherokee, Quechua, Hindi, Inuktitut, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew, to name a few. The colors are soft, yet strong, costumes and settings are delicately conceived and executed with exquisite detail, and the faces of the women and children are beautifully illuminated with a light of their own.

The text for each illustration is brief, almost terse, but rhythmical. In the page depicting the cover illustration, a Cherokee mother and small son celebrate the sun's return after a storm:

Mama says
be good.
Mama says
be kind.
Mama says
the rain will come,
but still the sun will shine.

An Ethiopian mother speaks her version of "Do your homework!" as her small son studies with her by lamplight:

Mama says
be strong.
Mama says
be bright.
Mama says
sometimes hard work
may keep you up at night.

In the only American portrayal, an African-American mother's advice seems a bit hackneyed:

Mama says
be on time.
Mama says
be neat.
Mama says
walk with pride,
and never drag your feet.

But in the Dillons' illustration, however, we see the child, neatly dressed in his little white shirt and tie, being escorted through a jeering crowd into a newly integrated school.

Simple words all of these are, but illuminated by the masterful art of Leo and Diane Dillon, they take on a certain depth that makes this book a stunning work, a natural for Mothers' Day, a good gift for mothers and for sons, too.

Mama says
help others,
and be the best
you can.
I listened to
what Mama said,
and now I am a man.