Book Review: "Mama Zooms"

Cowen-Fletcher, Jane. Mama Zooms. New York: Scholastic, Inc, 1993.

Mama Zooms is a simple picture book about a little boy whose mother is a wheelchair user. It tells of all of his adventures while riding on his mama’s lap. He imagines her as everything from his racehorse, to a buckboard carriage, to a train, and even as a spaceship. But, at bedtime, “Mama is just my mama, and that’s how I like her best.”

By not giving the little boy in the story a name, this tale becomes universal. Any child with a parent that has a disability can put themselves into the story and find comfort knowing they are not alone. This book also stands out because the character in the story that uses the wheelchair is not the child, as is usually the case in children’s books. Cowen-Fletcher, I do not believe is a wheelchair user herself, which may account for the one-sided portrayal. The family experiences no hardships or struggles because mom has a disability. On the one hand, this is positive because it is a really a story of familial love and less a story of being disabled. However, to show life as it really is for families in this situation everything would not be wonderful all the time. At the same time, the overall happy tone of the book provides readers who live in families like this one a piece of hope that one day their lives will be happy and “normal” again. And, it tells children with a parent or a loved one who has a disability that the “zooming machine” they have to use now does not mean the person is any different.