"My mother and father live far away. / I wish we lived together. / I wish that they were here. But I live with Mama Rose right now." This phrase is repeated three times throughout the narrative in the voice of a small African American girl who describes her life with her beloved Mama Rose. Just like a mama, she takes care of her needs, teaches her things (including how to dribble a basketball), makes her behave, and loves her. The watercolor illustrations show the child as a light-skinned girl with a lot of curly hair and missing her front tooth, and Mama Rose is a dark-skinned middle-aged woman. The text never tells us why her parents live far away or how she came to live with Mama Rose, which makes this applicable to many different family situations. The author's note mentions the African American tradition of "fictive kin"-made-up or invented relatives who step into a caring role when needed. The illustrations, rendered in watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and gel pen, were created by a granddaughter of Jerry Pinkney, making this the debut of the third generation of artists from the Pinkney family. (Ages 3-7)