Happy Friday everyone! It is the last day of vacation before we return back to digital learning next week, and my kids are celebrating by taking over my book reviews! What are we reading today? My kids and I read the book Mommies Work by Kristin Cowart Pierce.

Bit of a backstory: before the pandemic, both my husband and I worked full time and my kids went to a local daycare. My daughter loved the days her friends were there, but the rare day that she was alone, she would cry and work my mom guilt over why she couldn't stay home with me. Enter the pandemic - boom! She's home full time with us! All summer we juggled me working and caring for them, until she started Kindergarten and I quit my job to focus on caring for them.

When I began reading this to them, my daughter looked at me strange and said "but you stay home now." Well lo and behold, it addresses moms that stay home - BECAUSE IT IS HARD WORK! The book discusses the many places mom can work, and how we do still think about our kids while we are away.

This book was a great way to speak to my kids about why mommy works, and how I feel when I am away from them. We walked through the sports they used to do before the pandemic, we talked about the food and clothes. My son piped up "TOYS!" That went down a different rabbit hole, as then we discussed the toys they got for Christmas.

I asked my daughter a little later if she liked the book, and she said she did. She was wondering if I would work again. We talked more about her digital learning, and how I probably wouldn't be returning to work until after summer vacation next year, when my son becomes eligible for preschool and hopefully life will be returning to some type of new normal.

So for moms who work - this book is for you! I think it was a great conversation starter to find out how my kids truly felt about mommy working, and to reassure them that mommy still thinks . But it had an added benefit of also showing my daughter that she can be ANYTHING SHE PUTS HER MIND TO! Naturally, she wants to be a "waiter and then after taking the order I will cook the food! Maybe I just want to cook the food. You can come to my restaurant too and I will cook for you! But you have to pay." Ok! I like this plan!

What does my son want to be? He wants to put together birthday parties, which caused my daughter to scream "I WILL MAKE THE CAKES FOR IT!" They ran off to go put together a birthday party and bake in their play kitchen. I can hear my son shouting "CUPCAKES" while I type.

And that is how a new business idea was born. Go for it kids! While you are preparing, I will be at work!

This book tries to discuss the reasons a child's mom is at work, and what kinds of work they might do during the day. It tries to reinforce that they are thinking about their children during the day, and can't wait to see them again.

I think this would be an excellent book to read to a child struggling with separation anxiety, or as a way to explain to a young child why mom will be returning to the workforce soon.

I did notice a little diversity of race and ethnicity, but none in the way of size - every mom looked skinny as a rail. And apparently there are no men in the world that "mommy" is out working in, which I found a bit odd.

Little one's wonder where mommies go when they leave for work. Where do they go? This sweet book explains why Mommies leave and don't stay home and play all day with them.

"Mommies Work" highlights the life of working mothers. It showcases the modes of transportation that mother's use and gives a glimpse into some of the jobs that mothers partake in. I love the fact that some mother's are able and choose to stay home which is a great choice too.

Written in rhyme with fabulous upbeat illustrations the positive message affirms that no matter what profession a mother aspires to it ultimately is for the good of her family and also for herself. This book will spark conversations of a variety of careers and feelings about how both mommy and child feel when she steps away from home and into her workplace. I highly recommend this book.

Mommies work is a wonderful book that talks rather illustrates about mother’s work. It’s simple language and vibrant illustrations make the book an immediate hit with kids.

Narrations like ‘mommies can be anything they want to be’; ‘At the end of the mommies hurry home… for a hug and a kiss and to cuddle up close’ are quite positive vibes about working mothers.

Definitely, a book I want my ten-year-old daughter to read and enjoy.

Fantastic illustrations that really have lots of detail. As a working mum, this book really hits home. Can’t wait to read it to my little ones.

This is now one of my top five children’s books!

As a mom who works full time outside of the house I am SO happy to see a book explain to kids that Mommies can have real jobs too, and that we can work in a wide variety of careers. The illustrations are also phenomenal!

The only criticism I have of this book is that it’s priced pretty high. When I read this on NG I immediately went to buy it for all my working mom friends but at $19.99 a pop it’s a little much. $12.99, $14.99 maybe... still expensive for a kids book but well worth it. $19.99 is a stretch.

This is a story about where mommies go when they go to work. As a working mom myself I was looking for a book that I could share with my girls to help explain what I do. It's a good book but kind of missed the mark for me. It seemed kind of lacking. I get that it's about mommies but men are in the world too and the drawings out and about in the city only show women. The book just seemed to be missing substance.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.

This is a good children’s book with positive messages about working mums that also acknowledges that children are important to IM’s who have to work. The illustrations were pleasing.

This was an enjoyable book. It is perfect for helping to explain to kids why mommies work and what kind of work they may do. As a mom that works from home, I don’t really feel the illustrations accurately represent most working women.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #LanierPress for the #gifted copy of the book.

I love how the illustration is more like fashion illustration than a picture book, and remember fondly how I loved looking at these kinds of stylish pictures or illustrations while growing up. This tells us the life of working mommies, how they get to work (train, car, airplane etc) and where they work (tall office building, home, school, hospital etc). It also tells kids that although mommies are busy working and away from their children, they are always thinking of them. A great way to start a conversation on work/life.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Mommies work is a beautifully illustrated children's book examining in short poetic sentences why mummy's go out to work. I think I loved the pictures in this book more than my daughter :-).
The book helps children to understand why Mummy's go to work, what they do and if they think about them or miss them and how they travel to work.
I wish I looked half as glam as the mummy's in this book!

Mommies Work by Kristin Cowart Pierce provides an understanding of the wide variety of occupations mothers can have. Each location is illustrated in amazing accuracy with detailed modern moms dressed fashionably. This book also does show that work can also occur at home where a mom is shown caring for her children. As a mom of a child with autism I appreciate the detailed care shown to this topic. He often needs social stories to understand concepts that are not experienced directly by himself. The mom’s are shown multitasking and still being involved with their children from afar. The book closes with a reassurance that despite whatever job mom’s have during the day the favorite job is returning to and caring for their children.

I was provided a free advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review from Net Galley. The opinions shared in this review are my own.

This is a book with a nice message about working mothers. Some of the lines read a bit jarringly, like there was a problem with the flow of the wording, which impacted my reading experience slightly. And while I loved the illustrations as an adult, I'm less sure they'd be engaging to children. It also would've been nice to see more diversity in terms of body size (all the mothers were willowy thin), and it seemed a bit odd to me that one of images depicted a mom serving dinner to her family, presumably after a long day at work, while the dad just sat there doing nothing. Maybe he's a stay-at-home dad or something else was trying to be portrayed in terms of family dynamic, but the story text doesn't say and it was something I snagged on.

Overall, I think this book might be more effective as a gift for working moms who want to feel validated and celebrated than as a story to read to children.

A cute read for me as a new mom. This is a book I definitely would purchase and share with my son. The illustrations are beautiful!

This is a great book to help show kids that mommies work too! I like how it showed a lot of different ways that mommies work. I do wish it had showed the dad helping around the house too, but I like the overall message of this book. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This picture book is a great reply to kids who want to know why their mom works when other moms don't. The book takes a general look at the different types of work moms might do and where they might have to go to do that work. One thing I appreciated is that there was a fair degree of diversity in the illustrations, which is very important for this topic. It would have been nice to see more diversity in the illustrations showing families at home together and not just when out in the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

I had high hopes for this book - but it didn't follow through. Yes, they talk about Mom being able to go work anywhere and show different situations where Mom might work. However, the illustrations were not diverse at all - there was no diversity in appearance, body size, ethnicity. I was also appalled to see the picture where Mom comes home from work and is serving dinner to her husband and kids - this seems so outdated. Unfortunately, it is for the illustrations that I would not recommend or purchase this book.

This was a cute book with a great message. I loved the art work but wish the moms didn’t look so put together in every page, haha. Otherwise, it was a great book for working moms to read to their kids!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Short and sweet children's book written in rhyme, which I find perfect for youngest ones.
The artwork is beautiful and I'm sure everyone will enjoy it.
"Because taking care of you...
... is the job mommies love most!"

Review to come to blog/Goodreads on December 21st (my blog is all full up at the moment).

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I was definitely curious about this book, it looked/sounded very interesting! Plus, the cover, I liked the art that I saw on there. I have read a lot of books, but I believe this is one of the first books about mommies at work and it is great that there is now a book like this. To show kids why mommies work and all that women can do!

This book is all about mommies and work. All the kinds of work they can do (anything they want) and we see a few examples come by. I am so happy that mommies who stay home are featured as well! And next to seeing what works mommies can do (once again, everything) we also see how they go to work (there are many ways that mommies can go to work) and how much they think of their little ones (I had a laugh at how often the mom called, oh my), and we see the happy reunion at the end of a busy day which had me smiling! That was a great way to end the book.

I like that the book rhymed, that made it more dynamic and fun.

The art was fantastic. I loved how the people were drawn, especially the mommies were just fabulous!

All in all, a very fun and good book about mommies at work. I would recommend this one!