Our Mothers’ Names

“Thank you, Amma,” says the child as her mother praises a birdhouse she’s making with her friend Angelina. With two languages spoken at home, English and Malayalam (the most common language in Kerala, India, where her parents and grandparents were born), Amma is a word the child uses for her Indian-American mom. But Angelina, whose family is from Mexico City, says that her mother is called Mamá. And there are so many other names for mother! Thea’s mother is Greek and known as Mana. Francisco’s family is from Brazil, where moms answer to Mãe. Aliya is fluent in Arabic, whose word for mother is Umma. . . . With just a peek at the many ways to say mother among the world’s thousands of languages, the author and illustrator behind My Mother’s Tongues have fashioned another love letter to family bonds and heritage, another salute to multilingualism for a world that grows smaller and more connected day by day.