Review of “Why I Love Mama” by Raymond Johnson

Score: 93+/100 (9.3+ out of 10)

Why I Love Mama by Raymond Johnson is a heartwarming and beautiful book about the love between a daughter and her Mama!

This is a love that reaches beyond just these two people. This is a love that has touched all of our lives. Our mothers set the foundation for who we are. They taught us to read. They taught us how to write. They taught us how to treat other people. Where would we all be without our mothers?

This book features an adorable African-American child and her gorgeous, kind, and loving Mama. The child reflects on all the ways that she loves her Mama and what her Mama means to her. She also talks about the many, precious experiences and treasured memories she has shared with her Mama. These include visiting the aquarium and the zoo together, going to the beach, reading, playing, getting dressed, cooking/baking, and celebrating special occasions like birthdays and Christmases.

If that doesn't warm your heart, we don't know what will!

Conceptually, this book is a gem. It is also beautiful in more ways than one. These are probably some of the best (if not the best) AI-generated images we've ever seen. Now, that may be a concern for some people. Admittedly, it was a little bit of a concern to us as well.

AI images get a bad rap. First of all, there are ethical concerns. Second of all, they tend to look like nightmare fuel or have inconsistent styles.

Remarkably, the illustration style of this book is consistent throughout. For the most part, even the two lead characters look mostly consistent. However, there are some consistency issues, however minor. For example, the daughter looks significantly younger in the later illustrations than in the earlier ones. She goes from looking maybe 10-years-old to looking like a toddler. You could argue this is due to the passage of time, but we'd argue: why not do that in chronological order? Her hair and general appearance also look slightly off from time to time. The chief example of this is the Christmas scene on page 34 in which she looks like a completely different person. She is also much darker in some images and has noticeably different facial features in some illustrations versus others. Page 19 really jumped out at us seemingly showcasing a completely different character.

The same can be said for the mother. Her hair and facial structure change dramatically, even just flipping between pages 3, 4, 5, and 6. On page 5, she has a longer, leaner, sharper face. On page 6, she has a rounder, more stout face. Her hair has also increased to 3x the length including becoming a lot more curly. There are other issues like, for example, the right eyes of the characters on the cover showing the common ill effects of AI images.

Mama has a tattoo on her right arm on page 38 yet doesn't have one on pages 15 or 32. Her eyes are green on page 17 yet either black or brown on other pages.

These inconsistencies are minor yet noticeable. When it comes down to it: do kids really care?
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This book is a great children's book to just sit down and read with the kids. Even though the illustrations are inconsistent at times, the overall content is catchy, easily digestible, and flows nicely and rhythmically.

It helps to know that these images were based on actual photographs that the author had, which is something that we can definitely buy given the amount of detail in them. They are also very appealing and cute. If you showed us just one of these illustrations, we'd say: that looks nice!

One of our favorite pages in this book is the scene in which the daughter talks about how Mama is there to take care of her when she's sick. It's a very touching and beautiful scene showing the daughter in bed while Mama tends to her. The scene in which the daughter and Mama are visiting the zoo is also lovely.

It helps to think about this book as not being about the same mother and daughter. In fact, it's better to think of this book as being about mothers and daughters in general. Because of that, we can see this book as featuring multiple different African-American mothers and daughters, demonstrating the force of their love and the power of their relationships.

Check it out on Amazon!