This review is part of Dionne25's Mother's Day W/O. I thought that Just Me and My Mom would be a great little children's book to include in the write off because it's all about spending the day with mom.

About Just Me and My Mom

Just Me and My Mom is written by Mercer Mayer, who is famous for his Little Critter books. This book is an 8x8, 23 page paperback that was published in 1990 by Golden Books Publishing Company, Inc. There are a ton of Little Critter books out by Mercer Mayer and each one is centered around a family of Critters and the day to day mishaps and situations that they find themselves in, especially Little Critter, one of the children of Mom and Dad Critter.

In Just Me and My Mom, the story centers around Little Critter and the day he spends in the city with his mom. Poor Little Critter, things go wrong for him right from the start! His mom gives him some money to buy the tickets for the train that will take them to the city and when the conductor came by, Little Critter couldn't find the tickets so his mom had to pay the conductor some more money. Once they arrive in the city, things don't get any better. At the History Museum, Little Critter picked up a dinosaur egg that he wasn't suppose to touch and tried on some Indian costumes that he wasn't suppose to. They were asked to leave the museum after that. Things went pretty much the same way at the Aquarium and the Art Museum too. They were also thrown out of a nice restaurant because Little Critter brought a frog in with him. He did have fun at the toy store though and Little Critter felt safe and secure in the busy city because his mom was there to hold his hand.

We had fun, just me and my mom.

So, even though some things went wrong, both Little Critter and his mom had a great day because they spent it together.

Why We Like Just Me and My Mom

Story wise, Just Me and My Mom is a book that is a little too old for Courtney at the moment because she doesn't know what a museum or aquarium is yet. She does like the pictures in this book and the other Little Critter books she has. She calls Little Critter "baby" and loves to point out the buttons on his overalls (she has a thing for buttons, snaps, zippers, etc.... at the moment).

What I like about Just Me and My Mom is that teaches children that just because things don't always work out, you can still have a great day. I also love the mother/child connection that is made and the illustrations show just how much Little Critter and his mom love each other. Mercer Mayer is not only the author of the Little Critter books but he is also the illustrator and he does a great job of capturing Momma Critter's facial expressions as Little Critter gets into mischief and then her face is full of love at the end of the day as Little Critter falls asleep on her on the way home. What a perfect way to capture how we parents feel about our children!

One more tidbit that I found sweet was Mercer Mayer's dedication for Just Me and My Mom:

For my new son Benjamin and his Momma

I just thought this would be an adorable book for a child to give his or her mommy on Mother's Day so that they could read it together. Mercer Mayer also has a book called Just Grandma and Me and another one called Just Grandpa and Me. I plan to give these to Courtney's grandparents as gifts from her to them on Christmas.

Just Me and My Mom picture

Epinions doesn't seem to have a picture of Just Me and My Mom in their database, so if you would like to see a picture of this book, just copy and paste the following URL into your address bar:

http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/04032315011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7540000/7540954.jpg

Related Website

If you're a fan of Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books, then you may want to check out The Official Website of Little Critter. It's a fun website with many things to do like read jokes and print out coloring pages, just to name a few.

http://www.littlecritter.com/

Recommended: Yes