• Age: 1 to 4
• Grade: p

This fun story by Faiza Venzant is about a boy who spends the day with his mamma thinking she is going to eat him up. The vibrant and colourful illustrations by Patrick Girouard bring the story to life.

Faiza Venzant's profile page

Patrick Girouard's profile page

(first-person from Author)...I am the mother of two-year-old Qayam and one-year-old Malik. Qayam was born in November of 2015. During our first months together, cuddled indoors with a harsh winter brewing outside our door, we’d pass our time with books and songs. I learned quickly that Qayam loved to hear me sing. I made up this song and sang to him several times a day while nibbling on his various cute baby bits, “Oh geez! Just my luck! I love you too much to eat you up. From the top to the bottom, from the left to the right, gonna love you all day and all through the night.” When Qayam was about 5 months old, I had to the idea to expand the song into a story from his point of view and so I wrote My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up!

We truly love our books at our home as it is the most peaceful time for all of us. We especially love books done by local authors as those are extra special for us. This is why we were delighted to receive, My Mamma Wants To Eat Me Up, written by Faiza Venzant and illustrated by Patrick Girouard.

Of course as soon as we received this special book (before it hit the bookshelves) we had to read it right away. But before I go into the review of the book, I want to provide our readers with a deeper look at to how important this book is to the author, Faiza.

Faiza is a mother of two children. There is two year old, Qayam and almost one-year old, Malik. Qayam was born in November of 2015. During the first couple of months together, they spent it indoors since winter was in full force outdoors and spent their time with books and songs. Qayam loved music which inspired Faiza to create a song that she sang with him several times a day.

“Oh geez! Just my luck! I love you too much to eat you up. From the top to the bottom, from the left to the right, gonna love you all day and all through the night.”

When Qayam was about five months old, Faiza had the idea to expand the song into a story from his point of view and this is how My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up! was born.

Now the story does not end there. In February 2017, Faiza gave birth to Malik who was born 13 weeks early and they spent 11 weeks together in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and St. Michael’s Hospital. This was a terrifying, isolating and a difficult time for Faiza as she watched her son fight, thrive and cling to life. The only thing that she could do in the early weeks was hold and sing to him. Faiza would sing her song to him as she did with his brother and this brought her so much comfort and healing. The song was a powerful way to spend those crucial weeks together and it established their bond together. As he got stronger so did their bond.

When Malik was released from the hospital, it motivated Faiza to self-publish her book and she made sure to include a biracial child in the illustrations to reflect the diversity within her own family.

That is how it all began and we just love it as it’s inspiring for all of us as parents. We love hearing about the story behind the story and we have to say thank you to Faiza for sharing it with us!

So how did this book do on the #MelAndNikkiReview? I sat down with Nikki to get her thoughts on the book and what she rated it. You don’t want to miss hearing it below.

As you heard from Nikki, she gives the book 10 stars out of 5! Of course you can not get a better rating then that! The book is easy to read and it was very easy to get into character as a parent. The illustrations are also very beautifully drawn and they are bright and appealing to the little ones. You may find yourself loving the book so much that you start telling your child “I want to eat you up!” Then your child might be like mine and say “That’s just like the book!”

We highly recommend this book for children newborn to toddlers as they will all love it and parents will have fun reading it too.

This book is now available for purchasing (click here) and it would make a great addition to your little ones library. Make sure to follow along on Facebook and Instagram too.

Until next time…Happy Parenting!

-MommaBraga.com