Skateboard Mom

You might expect a sister or brother to race off with your brand new skateboard, but your mom?! But that's just what happened. She grabbed the board and skated down the sidewalk, catching air and popping ollies.

It turns out this mom was a skateboarding queen in her day and the whole neighborhood is amazed at the tricks she can do. But there's just one problem. How is her son going to get the skateboard back?

"When the narrator gets a skateboard for his eighth birthday, he discovers his mother's dark secret: she's a former skateboard queen. Co-opting his skateboard as soon as the wrapping paper is off, Mom executes ollies and spins like a pro, seemingly deaf to her son's requests that she return the gift to its rightful owner. Dad counsels patience and understanding: 'She used to be a champion, your dear ol' mom./ She even rode her skateboard to our Senior Prom.' The boy realizes there's only one way to get his skateboard back: buy Mom one of her own, then ask, 'Would you, could you, teach me to skate?' Debut author Odanaka — who is founder of the International Society of Skateboarding Moms — hits a few bumps in her rhyming, but she makes Mom's goofy greatness worth cheering. Adinolfi (My Teacher's Secret Life), working in fluorescent hues and a genially raw mixed-media style, leaves no doubt that the title character is a woman possessed: Mom has bright, half-moon eyes perpetually focused on the horizon, electrified hair and a grin worthy of the Cheshire cat. But she's more than willing to share — after all, isn't that what moms do? Ages 4-up." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Done in gouache, watercolor, and colored pencils, the dynamic, quirky illustrations capture the energy and humor of this rhyming tale." School Library Journal

"Odanaka's tale has a good measure of whimsy....Adinolfi's art...is steadily fun — offbeat in the right ways." Kirkus Reviews

A young boy learns that his mom was a skateboarding queen in her day and the whole neighborhood is amazed at the tricks she can do. But there's just one problem. How is her son going to get his skateboard back? Full color.

Barbara Odanaka was a member of the Hobie amateur skateboard team as a kid and is the founder of the International Society of Skateboarding Moms.