Mars Needs Moms!

March 26, 2007
In this excessive extraterrestrial fantasy, more painful than funny, Breathed (Flawed Dogs
) lets readers know what mothers are for: general self-sacrifice. Towheaded hero Milo, a mischief-maker, perceives mothers as "bellowing broccoli bullies and carrot-cuddling cuckoos." Yet when Milo awakens to find Martians kidnapping his mother, he instinctively leaps aboard their ship. On the red planet, the stowaway steps outside to see an enormous Chrysler minivan loaded with aliens. Martians are keen on human females because "They needed driving to soccer!... Plus cooking and cleaning and dressing and packing lunches and bandaging boo-boos!" Milo's mother never gets to provide these services, however, since her astonished son tumbles down the spaceship stairs and breaks his bell-jar-shaped oxygen helmet. She places her own helmet on his head, feasts her loving eyes upon Milo and collapses from lack of air. Milo must rescue her in return. Breathed mockingly depicts children's love/hate relationships to disciplinarians; he matches his hyperbolic humor with distorted caricatures in radioactive hues. Milo's mother initially appears monstrous, with clotted hair, dangling curlers and an ax-murderer's slouching silhouette, but she radiates shimmering light when she saves Milo's life. On the back cover, Martians (toting a big net) wistfully gaze at gallery portraits of mothers (including Whistler's) but comedy doesn't undo the backward equation of women and domesticity. Ages 4-up.

May 1, 2007
K-Gr 3-Milo just doesnt get whats so special about moms. As far as he can see, all they do is nag you to eat your broccoli and send you up to bed when you tint your little sister purple. So who needs them? Well, as it turns out, Martians do (they grow motherless from the ground like potatoes) and one night, three Martians sneak into Milos house and steal his sleeping mother. The boy races after them, grabs onto the ladder of their spaceship, and boards it just as it blasts off. Once on Mars, he looks outside and finally understands why the Martians need a mom so badlyThey needed driving to soccer! And to ballet! And to playdates, parks, and pizzas! Plus cooking and cleaning and dressing and packing lunches and bandaging boo-boos! Just then, he trips and falls and is saved byyou guessed it! And the sympathetic aliens take the boy and his mother home. The story ends with Milo waking up in his mothers bed, cuddling next to her. In typical Breathed form, the illustrations are lush, plush, and over-the-top with color, attitude, and craziness. The picture of the Martians trying to bait a mom with what looks suspiciously like a brand name Grande coffee on a line is hilarious, to say the least. Share this witty and sweet tale with young readers and their moms for a wacky treat."Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.