It is possible to romanticize a cruel situation without stripping it. It is possible to do it without falling

in trivialization. It is possible to extract its sweetest side. And so endorsed by the book El

Mommy's Bra, written by Edmée Pardo and illustrated by Edgar Clement. A work that

unmasks a disease far from children. It brings her closer to that audience. The

Mom's Bra deals with the relationship between a woman suffering from breast cancer and her daughter. I know

it focuses especially on the rehabilitation process, and offers a touching result.

The first page abducts the reader. The protagonist - a girl of about ten

years- he looks in the mirror and explains that “I have a body that every day

new ways. My feet have grown, my hair has grown, and soon I will wear clothes like Mom's. "

An astonishment at the body changes, with which the person who is reading the book

you will feel identified. Two phrases that build an atmosphere necessary to enter

in their shoes and immerse themselves in a sensitizing storytelling.

But first of all, the author and illustrator take advantage of the breast cancer thread to do their bit in the fight to normalize something unusually frowned upon in our society. When the protagonist - still unaware of the disease - is surprised by her mother's change of underwear, she remembers that "there are many forms of breasts and nipples." Edmée Pardo introduces, then, the breasts, and excludes the usual taboo that hangs around them.

And the illustrator provides the crown jewel in this case. On the same page of the exposed passage, Clement draws twelve different breasts. What do you get out of it? Among other things, that the new generations who consume this work do not see the breasts as sexual objects, but simply as parts of the body.

After this ephemeral but necessary parenthesis, this sensitizing content arrives. Treatment begins. And with him, a lesson. Through the healing process of the woman, accompanied by her daughter, the book conveys the harshness of life. And he does it with a sweet tone. Romantic and optimistic. "No person is free from the risk of breast cancer, but there is a way to treat it in time and care for those who suffer from it," reads the story. Finally, the mother manages to defeat the cancer.

The book ends practically as it begins. If on the first page we are presented with the girl looking in the mirror at about eight years of age, on the last page she appears already at puberty. Your body is developing. Her breasts have grown. And after remembering the value that his mother instills in him -the importance of taking care of his body-, the story ends to give way to a glossary with scientific vocabulary and related to breast cancer. And immediately afterwards, the book offers a series of testimonies of women who managed to overcome the same cancer.

The mother's bra , therefore, is a necessary and useful book that brings children closer to a daily but little-treated situation. Breast cancer exists, but perhaps little is said about it. Or not enough. And of course, we are usually afraid of the unknown. If we do not talk about breast cancer, it means that it is something unknown. And for this, among other reasons, we are afraid of it. But this book fights precisely to make breast cancer known to new generations. So that they respect it, but do not fear it.  

They are little more than thirty pages full of optimism, which help to know, understand and accept this disease. He treats her with delicacy and affection. Some pages intended not only for sons or daughters of women who suffer or have suffered from breast cancer. But to all the boys and all the girls. Because these pages also raise awareness, and cause those who read them to care more about the people around them. Just as our protagonist does with her mother.