My Mom's Wedding
Kindergarten-Grade 3—On the eve of her mom's wedding, seven-year-old Pinky reflects on her relationships with her faraway father and Jim, her pending stepfather. While she loves both men, she secretly hopes that her parents will get back together. When the girl sees her father in the midst of her ring-bearer preparations, she whispers to him that she will give him the rings if he'll marry her mother instead. Daddy gently reminds Pinky that he and her mother are "just friends." At the ceremony, Pinky hesitates before she gives up the rings, but she realizes that she is happy for her mother and Jim. While Pinky's reactions to and acceptance of her mother's remarriage and her stepfather are unrealistically condensed into the actions of two days, her range of feelings is typical of children in like situations. While her first-person voice may be a little precocious at times, it is honest and direct in typical Bunting style. Papp's soft watercolors, bordered and cropped to evoke wedding photos, set up idyllic matrimonial images. While this offering may hurry Pinky's emotional arc, it does help fill the need for titles on stepparents and remarriage.—Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.