When Mama Comes Home Tonight
By Eileen Spinelli
Illustrated by Jane Dyer
Simon and Schuster, $14
ISBN 0689810652

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Perfectly comforting both to young children and to moms who work away from home, this book soothes hearts with its rock-a-bye rhythm and Mary Cassatt-inspired art. Author Eileen Spinelli, now a grandmother, has had plenty of experience in putting her six children to bed after a long day's work. We suspect she's also done some singing -- it's almost impossible not to sing as you read the rhymed promises filled with a mother's love.

Jane Dyer's glowing illustrations, with an abundance of blue, gold, and green, match the feeling of the words as they show mother and child enjoying day's-end activities together -- dancing down the hall, playing pat-a-cake, playing blocks, counting stars, bathing, etc. The matching golden curls in their hair seem to make them closer.

When Mama Comes Home Tonight will surely be a bedtime favorite for years to come.