Mama, Do You Love Me? ISBN 0-87701-759-X. Barbara M. Joosse. Illustrated by Barbara Lavallee. 1991. Golden Kite Award. Ages 4-8. Traditional Inuit.

This is a simple story in which a young girl seeks to hear from her mother that her love is unconditional. The girl wants to know how much her mama loves her and whether or not her mama will love her even if she does things that she knows she should not do. No matter what happens, Mama always says, “I will love you . . . “ The colorful watercolor and colored pencil illustrations of the mother and daughter’s clothing stands out against the mainly white backgrounds of the pages. The detailed illustrations represent the Inuit culture in a way that the fairly simple text does not. The illustrations represent the traditional Inuit culture prior to the encroachment of contemporary, western influence.

I can see uses for this book by many age groups and across many curriculum areas. Very young children would appreciate the repetition present in the prose, the colorful illustrations, and the introduction to the Inuit culture and Arctic animals. Emotions, as displayed by the mother, could also be explored with younger children. Older children could explore the Inuit culture, as introduced in this book: in art by creating their own masks, in science by discussing the seasons of the Arctic (the Midnight Sun and the Polar Night), by exploring the changing weather and environment of the Arctic, or in social studies by exploring the day-to-day life of the traditional Inuit and their geographic location. Some of these topics could be extended further in an exploration of how the traditional Inuit culture is changing with the encroachment of contemporary, western influence.