May 8, 2023
A Black-presenting child narrator’s activist mother stars in this picture book tribute to a parent’s practice of peaceful advocacy and protest. “Like the beat of a terrific, giant drum,” a “Mommy marches” through sun, rain, and snow “to say the things that need to be said./ To remind people how to love./ To help take the pain away from the world.” Reid’s simply stylized artwork provides context, showing long-legged figures of varied abilities and skin tones holding signs aloft in various scenes of protest: “Love is not a color,” “Protect our trees,” “Equality 4 All.” Positioned as a leader of actions, the parental subject, “a marching machine” concerned about varied progressive causes, stands out with a red flower tucked into black curls as she enthusiastically leads crowds through the streets, stands arm in arm with cohorts, and orates from a podium. Throughout, Hawkins’s rhythmic prose highlights the feelings and ideas that compel Mommy to march, and concluding pages make clear that her actions, like those of her mother and grandmother before her, succeed at inspiring both her child and her community. Ages 4–9.