My Mommy Wears Combat Boots

 Author's Summary

As we march on through another year of war, many service members have already completed more than one deployment. Astonishingly, a lot of these service members are mothers, and they are not only balancing their commitments to their families but to the nation as well.My Mommy Wears Combat Boots is based the personal experience of a soldier and a mother who was seeking a way to explain why she needed to leave her child again and go to war. Young children are very limited when it comes to communication skills, and often have a difficult time expressing guilt, frustration, anger, loneliness and sadness and often don't realize that it's normal to feel all of this and more as the result of their mom's deployment. Books about mommies going to war are few and far between, and My Mommy Wears Combat Boots is for mothers in uniform everywhere that are seeking a way to explain to their children the emotions associated with deployment and a way to positively channel those emotions when they are away.

MWSA Review

MWSA 2008 Silver Medal for Children's Books, Under 12

Sharon McBride’s My Mommy Wears Combat Boots is not only an invaluable educational tool for parents who happen to be soldiers, but a delightful learning experience for their children as well.  With many thousands of female soldiers having served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is certainly an appropriate time for the release of this book.  Due to the lack of similar books on this subject, I’m sure it will quickly become a welcome resource for parents and families of deploying mothers. 

My Mommy Wears Combat Boots is a delightful explanation of why Mommy has to sometimes go off to war, and the resulting emotional conflict it can create for her children, or in this case, a little girl bear cub.  It is written on an emotional level that children will readily understand, and runs the gamut of the typical feelings that a child would experience during separation.  Ms. McBride addresses the appropriate emotions, and although she reinforces that these feelings are normal, bad behavior in response to them, is not.

It is evident to the reader that Ms. McBride draws on personal experience with her own child as she breaks down each emotional difficulty individually, and then summarizes them at the end. 

The illustrations of the Momma bear and her cub are colorful and captivating.  The depictions follow the story perfectly allowing the child to follow along and watch the story unfold as they listen to it being be read. 

I highly recommend this charming and educational children’s book to anyone (whether it be the mother, father, or extended family member of a deploying soldier) faced with the difficult task of explaining to the little ones why mommy has to go to war.

Reviewed by: Claudia Pemberton (2008)