Mom's Magic Chair | A Book Review

Robertino and his mom are the stars of this colorful, joyful, adventurous picture book for young readers. It tells a story we still struggle to see as "normal": a woman with a disability becoming a mother. Robertino and his mom do everything any mom and any son do together. The "magic chair" changes nothing—or rather, it sparks the imagination. Because "it can be done." Laura Coccia tells us so in the autobiographical note that closes the book, with the poetry and honesty we've come to know from her. The wheelchair on the cover is nearly rearing up, almost lifted from the ground by four balloons that carry it over the fences and prejudices we're soaked in. But in the lower left corner sits a fifth balloon—green. It's not quite clear who's holding it. We might imagine it's our hands, hands of people usually so unable to fly.