My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages
Written by Uma Menon
Illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell
Candlewick Press
Ages 4-8
Available February 13th, 2024

Snowflakes flutter to the ground as Sumi’s mother sets foot on U.S. soil from India painting a picture of her mother’s migration journey. Through tireless work, her mother learned English, and as a result, she now speaks two languages–Malayalam and English. Flash-forward to the present day while grocery shopping, Sumi’s mother switches from speaking Malayalam to grandmother to English with the cashier and a combination of both languages to Sumi. “The languages hop like rabbits from her tongue” (p. 4). To Sumi, her mother’s tongues are rapidly woven together into one fine tapestry with invisible seams. Sumi studies English at school like her mother and learns that each of her languages is like a muscle that needs to be exercised to grow strong. 

Sixteen-year-old Uma Menon, who grew up in a multilingual household, penned this picture book because she could not find stories that reflected her experience. Simple sentence structure gives the story a childlike tone reflecting the main character’s youthful age. However, the wise words and powerful messages that emerge surpass our expectations of a teenage author. The power of multilingualism is evident in this story when Sumi says, “I want to learn dozens of languages so that, one day, I can speak with people who live in every part of the world” (p.24). Speaking many languages is a superpower that can catapult one across boundaries and around the globe. Woven textures and muted earthy tones give the book a nostalgic feel of the old world and times gone by. On the cover page, title page, and final spread, Rhahele Jomepour Bell incorporates visual metaphors weaving together the Malayalam and English languages within an alphabet quilt. The quilt is then transformed into Sumi’s superhero cape in the final image of the book because “having a tapestry of tongues” (p. 26) will be her superpower.