Mamá's Panza

January 29, 2024
A child expresses appreciation for a favorite belly—their Mamá’s panza—in this tender, body-neutral telling. Though panzas can be “big, round, soft, or small and hard, or somewhere in between,” everyone has one, and the child narrator’s loves their mother’s best. It was the youth’s “first home” (“a big round garden” that communicated, “Here we are. Make some room. We’ve got growing to do”), and the scene of first communications between them. Now, Mamá’s panza is “a drum I like to play”—an action that precedes “my panza’s turn to be a drum,” and a loving game of chase between the two. Galvez’s uncomplicated digital illustrations render the duo, who cue as Latinx, amid blooming flower motifs in largely domestic scenes that underline the book’s comfortable interpersonal feel. A Spanish edition publishes simultaneously. Ages 3–7.