There is a magic to this story. The content is very dark, but the story is told with a mixture of delicate, matter-of-fact tone and mysterious whimsy and manages to create a lovely story about overcoming the despair that often accompanies the grief of losing a loved one. I like that the tone of the book wasn't too cautious and didn't skirt around the sadness. It was matter-of-fact but in a perfectly delicate way, not too blunt, either. The book explores her sadness, tells us exactly what she misses about her mother, and how it makes her feel to see other children with their mothers. Although the story is told from the perspective of the little girl, the reader is able to pick up a lot about the point of view of her widowed father from both the writing and the illustrations. Absolutely recommend for students who may be having similar feelings of grief. ( )

This book is told through third person point of view. The book talks about Siobhan and how she could not remember her mothers face. She could remember anything, but her face and that saddened Siobhan. However, one day in the park Siobhan meets a stranger and she tells her to look in the mirror. You will see your mothers face if you look in the mirror. Siobhan looks in the mirror constantly and imagines her mother. Later in the story Siobhan has a daughter and realizes the stranger she met in the park was her mother.

I really enjoyed this read because I can relate to in completely. I could not remember my fathers face, but every time I look in the mirror I can see him. I liked ready this book a lot.

I think this will be a great read for children who come from single parent homes that have a dead or absent father. I have a dead father and I absolutely loved the read. ( )

The story opens up with ten year old Siobhán struggling to cope with her mother's passing. It is only her and her father now and she misses the sight of her mother (for which she cannot picture anymore). Her father is also struggling to face his sadness so every time Siobhán asks about her mother, he cannot bring himself to talk about her. One day, Siobhán meets a beautiful lady in the park who asks about her sadness. Siobhán tells the woman everything. The woman tells Siobhán the secret to picturing her mother again; she tells her to look into the mirror and she will see parts of her mother in her appearance. This secret helps Siobhán heal. The woman also tells her to tell her father a phrase. One day as Siobhán and her now daughter are crying, her father comes in to see what is wrong and Siobhán tells him, "Put a feather in your knickers, Dad." Her father is stunned and asks where she heard that from and she replied that a beautiful woman told her to tell him that. They then realize it was her mother all along. I love that Siobhàn was able to grow in the midst of grief.

A daughter struggles to come to terms with the loss of her mother in this quietly powerful story from Roddy Doyle, an award-winning Irish author who makes his picture-book debut here. Opening as the ten-year-old Siobhán struggles to recall the face of the mother who died when she was three, the narrative paints a sensitive portrait of a young girl's grieving, a process made all the more difficult by her father's silence, and by her inability to communicate her sadness to the people in her life. Although able to remember certain things - the movements of her mother's hands, as she made dinner; the feel of her arms, as she lifted her daughter up toward her favorite chestnut tree; the sound of her voice, as she sung her songs - Siobhán could not call her mother's face to mind, and the more she tried, the greater her distress: "The empty space where her mother's face should have been was like a pain, a giant unhappiness that Siobhán carried with her everywhere." And then one day, sitting in the park, she met a friendly and perceptive woman, who sat with her, listened to her, and gave her some advice about how to "see" her mother's face - advice that brought true comfort and healing. The woman also gave Siobhán a message for her father, but would she ever remember to deliver it...?

Although Doyle, who is best known for his adult novels, particularly the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and The Commitments, which has been made into a movie, has written some well received children's books - The Giggler Treatment has been recommended to me numerous times, as one of the most hilarious children's books available - Her Mother's Face is his first picture-book. All I can say is - let's hope for more! The narrative tone here is pitch perfect, capturing Siobhán's grief with its calm, understated poignancy, while the illustrations, done in watercolor and charcoal by Australian artist Freya Blackwood, are lovely. I actually discovered Her Mother's Face because of Blackwood, as I have been seeking out more of her work, after loving The Selkie and the Fisherman, which she also illustrated. In any case, this is just a beautiful little book, with a wonderful story that will strike a chord with any child who has experienced the loss of a parent, or other loved one. I particularly liked that the story does not exclude humor, in the form of the message intended for Siobhán's father, and that it incorporates three generations. Highly recommended! ( )