The Mystery of the Hidden Book
Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
My mom taught me to read early, much earlier than most kids in the 1960's. She used some mail-order reading system with flash cards and a library of Dr. Seuss Early Reader Books.
Looking back, I figure she must have started to order the Early Reader Books the day I was born. She bought them from some book-of-the month program. By the time I was 3, she had accumulated what seemed to me to be dozens of them. After I mastered the flash cards, it was time to dig into the books.
I loved, loved, loved reading. I made my through all..20? I'm thinking it was 20, all the way through Little Black, A Pony by Walter Farley. (The Early Reader series had Dr. Seess books as a backbone, but other writers were included.) When I was finished the series, we got other books, but mostly I just read and re-read the Early Reader books until they were dog-eared.
When I was 4 or 5, I remember digging through the closet one day looking for, who knows what kids are looking for, a shoe, a broken toy, something to break the boredom.when I found a book that she had never brought out to me before. Are You My Mother?, written and illustrated by P.D. Eastman.
I was so excited to have a new book! It was like finding the golden treasure or a big stash of bubblegum. Mom, Mom, look what I found! I ran to show my mother. She got the queerest look on her face. I can see it in my mind to this day. Mom, a book. You never gave me this book! Why didn't I have this book before?
I remember her stumbling over her words, and telling me, more or less, that she didn't like the book, and she just didn't think I would like it either.
Never one to take the opinion of a reviewer, I decided to find out for myself. I opened the pages and dug in. (The 63 pages with just a few words per page may not seem like they need digging into to a grown up, but hey, I was 4 years old.)
Plot Summary
Baby Bird has a very kind and loving Mama. We meet him when he's not-quite-born yet. An egg. A mere shell of himself to come. (Sorry, it was too much to resist.)Mama Bird goes off to find food for her soon to be born baby bird, when - pop - out comes the Baby Bird. New to the world and all alone in the nest, Baby Bird freaks, falls out of the nest and down to the ground.
Now what? Without much consideration and certainly no forethought, Baby Bird sets off on a quest to find his mother. He is totally clueless that he's a bird, and frankly not too bright. The one thing he knows for sure is that he has a mother and he's darn well going to find her. Baby Bird gets big points for determination, making up for him not being the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Along the way he meets up with various creatures that he thinks might just be his mother. My personal favorite of all his "possible" mothers is a big old cow, full of disdain. "How can I be your mother? I am a cow." The illustration of the cow reminds me of the snootiest of all society matrons, slightly plump and completely convinced of her position in the world.
Every creature in the book knows who he/she is, except Baby Bird. Toward the end of the book, Baby Bird is so truly confused, he thinks that perhaps a big machine ("Snort") is his mother. It is the kindly machine that picks up the terrified bird and returns him to his nest, just in time for his Mother to arrive with his first meal.
As a child, I loved this book. I read it over and over again. I felt Baby Bird's tension as he searched for his "identity" in the faces of disdainful cows and bored dogs. And I felt his joy and being reunited with his mother at last. I distinctly remember being irritated at my own mother that I had to find this book on my own. Why on earth would she hide that book from me?
My Mystery Revealed
Flash forward 25 years. I'm all grown up with a kid of my own, dying for Dan to turn two so I could start buying Dr. Seuss-like books for him. I bought him the standards, Hop on Pop, One Fish Two Fish.and then I went out of my way to find P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother.One evening, as I was reading it to Dan (who was loving it as much as I always did), the explanation for my mom's hiding the book came thundering to me:
I was adopted.
Mind you, I always knew I was adopted. It was at that moment, reading to my son that I realized the reason my mom had hidden the book from me was that I was adopted. Apparently, Mom just couldn't handle the thought of her daughter reciting over and over again Are You My Mother? and reading (over and over again) about the quest of a Baby Bird in search of his Real Mother, matching up only with the Mom that looks exactly like he does.
What a shame that she feared this book. My adopted child eyes see nothing whatsoever for her to fear. My eyes see a Baby Bird who wanted a mother of his own, searching for the creature (or machine) that would nurture and love him. He would have willing embraced and bonded with any of those he approached if they had not turned him away. He didn't search for a mother who looked like him, he only searched for his mother.
The book closes with the a wonderful illustration of a loving Mother Bird and happily relieved Baby Bird. "You are my mother!" "And you are my Baby Bird". The security that washes over my son Dan when he reads this page is the same security that washed over me as a child. It matters not that my son came from my womb, and I did not come from my mother's. We both know exactly who our real mothers are -- the lady who fed us worms and love when we were small.
Conclusion
Are You My Mother? should be a staple in any early reader library. The illustrations are charming and the text well written. The book will delight young children and the repetition of small words makes this an excellent choice for starting readers.
