My Silly Mum

My Silly Mum by Monique Mulligan, illustrated by Veronica Rooke (Serenity Press) HB RRP $22.95 ISBN 9780994526557

Reviewed by Teena Raffa-Mulligan

This delightfully warm and funny picture book is guaranteed to add smiles to story time - and quite likely giggles. There's a generous sprinkling of humour throughout this child- and parent-friendly debut title from Monique Mulligan.

Veronica Rooke's fresh, lively cartoon-style illustrations add an extra dimension of fun to Mum's embarrassing antics and introduce a couple of extra characters to amuse young readers.The layout of the hand-drawn text on the pages is an integral part of the book’s design, along with the inclusion of some speech balloons.

My Silly Mum is a wonderfully warm-hearted celebration of the love between a mother and child and is sure to remain a popular choice on the family bedtime reading list. However, its appeal is not limited to a pre-school audience and children in the early years of primary school will also find it entertaining and readily relate to the eye-rolling and face palming a parent’s behaviour can cause.

Colouring sheets, a write-your-own-story activity and finger puppet characters from the book are available from the publisher.