Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

The girls found this board book treasure on the shelf the other day, and boy, did I get start getting teary-eyed and sentimental.  (Do baby toes make you yearn for another little one?  Books are my poison, apparently.  😉 )  Reading this book to them the fifty-second time (while they sat perched on the Dora the Explorer stool which props open my bathroom door and I applied my make-up, no less), I saw their too-soon passed babyhood flit across the screen of my memory.  This happened not just because I have warm-and-cozy memories of reading this book to them long before they themselves have memories of it, but because this book is mostly about security and maternal love.  Sarah and Percy and Bill, the three Owl Babies in the story, wake up to find their owl mother GONE.  Sarah and Percy express confidence that she will return and guess where she might’ve gone without them; Bill, on the other hand, just repeats over and over again the refrain of “I want my mommy!”  Of course, Owl Mother returns in the end, with a gentle admonition for her owl babies for worrying in her absence.  The language is lyrical and Patrick Benson’s illustrations are dark and cozy, just right for this comforting read.  This one belongs on my Best Picture Books list!