Stellaluna is a very tender story about a baby bat who is out looking for food and is attacked by an owl. She drops to the jungle but clutches a thin branch and hangs on until morning. When she is too weak to hold on any longer, she drops down, landing in a nest, where three baby birds were waiting for their Mama to come back with food. Mama Bird is fine with Stellaluna until she finds that Stellaluna is teaching her bird babies to hang upside down to sleep. She tells Stellaluna she cannot do that and will have to leave if she continues. So Stellaluna still sleeps hanging, but right side up, with her thumbs instead of her feet. She eventually is reunited with her own mother, and her bird baby friends visit, and they realize that they are so different, and yet so alike. Such a good story of friendship, diversity, and moms and their love for children, no matter how different they are. (The back of the book has “bat facts” if your grandkids are interested).
“The Kissing Hand” is a sweet book about a mother raccoon who’s child, Chester, is worried about going to kindergarten, and being separated from her. Mother teaches him a secret. She kisses the palm of his hand and tells him that whenever he feels lonely, he can press his hand to his cheek, and the kiss will jump to his face, and remind him of how much she loves him. She tells him that even when he washes his food, the kiss will stick. Chester carried his mothers love with him to school, and it worked so well, that at night, he asked for his mother’s hand and kissed her palm, in order to give her a “kissing hand.” He told her she could press her hand to her cheek, when Chester was at school, and her heart was lonely for him and would remember how much he loves her.
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