My Mama Is a Work of Art

In rhyming verse and thin-lined portraiture, Acado portrays one child’s view of their tattooed parent: “Proud, out, and unashamed.” Mama cuddles the child, who describes Mama’s left arm as having “a sailing ship and my name in a heart,// A flower, and two cats that you cannot tell apart.” The parent-child pair, portrayed with brown skin, walk through their neighborhood and admire other “living works of art,” greeting community members who have “memories and lifelong dreams etched artfully on their skin.” Addressing those who “stop and stare,” the child says, “I learned from her to treat with kindness everyone I see—/ Tattooed or bare, I should not care, but just let people be.” As the often community-focused illustrations nod to famous works of art—Mama appears in a frame posing in the manner of Girl with a Pearl Earring—and follow the duo to the tattoo parlor, the work celebrates the autonomy and ritual that tattoos represent for one parent who is regarded as nothing short of “a masterpiece.” Background characters are portrayed with various body types and skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)