National Network for Equitable Library Service

Jonathan Chester and Patrick Regan's My Unflappable Mom is a loving tribute to “the most rare of birds—the incredible, unflappable mom.” You know the type. Band-Aids. Car pools. Freshly baked cookies. The 5th grade scale model of Mt. Vesuvius she helped sculpt out of papier-mache—complete with pyrotechnics. Chester’s striking and intimate nature photographs of tuxedoed penguins and their young beautifully illustrate Regan’s charming verse that honors those incredible, unflappable moms who nurture and instill a spirit of adventure and independence in their young. While it’s a mom’s job to be ever watchful, fiercely protective and deeply engaged in her children’s lives, it’s also a mom’s job to let go—to send her young into the big scary world—whether that means walking away without looking back on the first day of kindergarten or nudging them gently out of the nest as young adults. In My Unflappable Mom, Chester and Regan celebrate the relationship between mother and child while praising mom for being the rare bird that she is—and that’s definitely something to flap about.