Mama Loves Me from Away

by Pat Brisson

Book Overview

Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1563979667
• ISBN13: 9781563979668
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.8" x 11.6"
• Age Range: 2 to 5 years

Customer Reviews

Connect up the dots

There are so few books for kids of incarcerated parents in this, the country which imprisons the highest per capita percentage in the world, that this stands out as a great resource. The gift that mother gives her child is the gift of stories, which every prison literacy program ought to take to heart as the basis for a writing program that actually helps the inmates. The age rating on the book says 4-8 but it really has a much wider reach, probably four to 13. It would probably be helpful to teachers and caregivers of kids whose parent is in prison to connect to the Center for Children of Incarerated parents, which offers national correspondence courses, as well as educational services of all kinds. They can be reached at [...] For those teaching in prison programs this story would provide a good impetus to begin a writing program for women with children left behind to help heal the wounds of separation and disappointment. Pat Brisson, who volunteers in a literacy program in a correctional facility, has captured many of the details in her text and obviously passed along information to the illustrator. Never is the mother's crime or sentence mentioned. It is a fine book to begin parents thinking about how help their children on the outside and foster family storytelling, not just in writing but on video, in art and on tape.

A sweet and much-appreciated book

My daughter loves this book! Her dad was incarcerated recently, and I have been looking for books like this, to make her feel that she is not alone, that there are other children like her, who can understand her pain. Like Sugar and her mom, my daughter and husband are strongly attached, and they struggle to find new ways to do the special things they've always done together. This book is a little dose of sweetness and inspiration in a very, very tough situation. I am grateful that it was written.

An idealized but worthwhile story.

Incarceration is tough for parents, traumatic for their kids. Mothers of dependent children, mostly single nonviolent drug felons, currently are the fastest-growing segment of the burgeoning United States prison population, according to About Children: An Authoritative Resource on the State of Childhood Today, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their vulnerable children are a growing population as well whose emotional and physical lives can get pretty rugged. Generally, children sink further into poverty, have tenuous care arrangements, face unhealthful levels of uncertainty, and deal not only with loss and separation, but also with an anxious mix of shame, guilt, anger and fear. They feel abandoned and hopeless. Behavior deteriorates. When an adult is arrested and sentence passed, intervention on behalf of the offender's young offspring is necessary. Relatives or friends, social agency professionals and foster care providers do try to help. Still, the challenge is gigantic, the need is growing, kids are losing out. Although no bibliotherapy approach can address the problems remotely, much less remedy any part of these children's real-life situations, representation of parental incarceration in decent books for children seems important. Satisfying stories of substance in which children may recognize plights similar to their own, or with which unaffected children might be able to empathize with families in such situations, may be beneficial. Only a few picture books are presently available, two of which are attractive, and one of which nicely portrays an elementary aged daughter of a mother in prison and their strong, somewhat idealized, relationship. Author Pat Brisson's familiarity with incarcerated mothers, through her volunteer work with a prison book-recording program, lends Mama Loves Me From Away, verisimilitude and thoughtful details. Without specifying the crime or mentioning the sentencing, she concentrates on the experience, in the first person voice, of daughter Sugar whose close, loving mom "went away and everything changed." On Sundays, if Grammy's knees aren't acting up, she takes Sugar to visit Mama in prison. The illustrations show a relatively grim atmosphere with barbed wire fence, guards at the visiting cage, and expressive faces. The rest of the week, Sugar is sustained by remembering stories of their lives she and her mom shared which incidentally reveal a realistic profile of teenaged pregnancy, partying, friends, single parenthood and low level employment. Sugar is in a stable living situation but misses her mom terribly. The story pivots on their shared birthday. Sugar creates a fine card for her mother while sadly trying to overcome her anticipated disappointment that her mom won't be able to give her a birthday present this year. At their visit, Mama presents Sugar with a notebook in which she's written the family stories Sugar loves. Perhaps Brisson and the illustrator present too comfo