Mama Car
by Lucy Catchpole; illus. by Karen George
Preschool    Little, Brown    40 pp.
11/25    9780316578035    $18.99

A young child narrates her day, describing all the ways that her mother’s wheelchair, “Mama Car,” is a part of her family’s life. On a small expedition through the house, when she spies a little toy in the pathway of the wheelchair, she directs Mama to stop so the “crocodile,” a reaching tool, can snap up the offending item. When the narrator decorates the wheels of the wheelchair, “Everyone says it is very beautiful now.” On a subsequent, larger expedition, the narrator tips over while riding her tricycle. Luckily, Mama is there in her Mama Car, ready to scoop up the hurt child for a cuddle. “The Mama Car has so many things, but the best thing is…it has Mama.” Catchpole does an excellent job of introducing young listeners to the details of this child’s life with parents who have disabilities (her father uses a brace and appears to have only one leg) through her simple, warm story. Clean illustrations, done in gouache and colored pencil with plenty of white space, portray a sunny, bright-eyed preschooler whose play clothes are printed with flowers that resemble the wheels and spokes of the Mama Car. Catchpole relates in her author’s note that her children have grown up playing with and decorating her own wheelchair.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.