What's Special About Me, Mama?

What’s Special About Me, Mama?

Words by Kristina Evans

Pictures by Javaka Steptoe

2011

What’s Special About Me, Mama? is a simple dialogue between a boy and his mother about his exploration of identity and curiosity at a young age.

Looking at the front cover, we see a boy and his mother and a purple background of X’s and O’s, which often signify hugs and kisses. Without opening it, we can probably guess that this book will feature an interaction between them and some aspect of their relationship having to deal with affection. This X and O patterned-background is repeated on the first page of text, but the story begins with the little boy sheepishly peering out from behind his mother’s chair to ask her, “What’s special about me, Mama?” The purple patterned background looks like it could be a combination of print and watercolor, whereas the foreground details such as the chair and the clothes and the skin of the mom and boy look like they were created out of some kind of crinkled tissue paper so they have almost a 3D texture that makes you want to reach out and touch them!

His mother answers his question the first time, “your eyes, Love, and the way they tell AMAZING stories without any words,” capitalizing and bolding “amazing” and giving it a red font. But for each feature that his mom says makes him unique, the little boy finds a new rebuttal: other various family members share those features too. For each new feature she suggests, she uses another descriptive word, also emphasized with bolding, capitalization, and coloring for each word: BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT, JOY.

Finally, he cannot find a refutation when she suggests his hugs and kisses that “stay on my cheeks all day—they make me feel so BIG and STRONG.” She highlights the idea that ‘big things come in small packages,’ which is so important for little ones who sometimes feel they are incapable of doing grown-up tasks because they are so small. She reassures him that what really makes him unique is that her love for him is different than anyone else’s.

This book also touches lightly on diversity. When the little boy says that his eyes are not special because he has the same color as his mom, she offers instead, “your skin, Love, and the way the colors blend together to create the most BEAUTIFUL autumn earth.” His mother is dark, and on the next page, we learn that he and his father have the same lighter skin color, so we can deduce that he is a mixed race child. Race is a concept that not many young children understand until later in life, but this book does a good job of introducing an appreciation for racial differences. Due to the themes presented, I believe this book is geared towards a young age range, possibly 3-8 or so.