Narrator Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped seven years earlier when she was a 19-year-old college student, celebrate his fifth birthday. They live in a tiny, 11-foot-square soundproofed cell in a converted shed in the kidnapper's yard. The sociopath, whom Jack has dubbed Old Nick, visits at night, grudgingly doling out food and supplies. But Ma, as Jack calls her, proves to be resilient and resourceful--and attempts a nail-biting escape.

A young koala, longing to hear her mother speak lovingly to her as she did before other children came along, plans to win her distracted parent's attention.

A beloved and very sleepy little boy resists his mother's efforts to put him to bed.

SpongeBob and his Bikini Bottom buddies share the reasons they are devoted to their mothers.

A curious baby giraffe keeps wandering away from his mother to explore the interesting sights and smells that surround them. Includes a note on giraffes.

When a young boy imagines what he might be and do one day, his mother assures him that he can be anything, and she will always be there for him.

Lyrical text and illustrations of baby animals and their mothers show the love of a parent.

A mother demonstrates how much she loves her child by pretending to be various animals her little one reminds her of as they share a busy day.

Rhyming text describes all the out-of-this-world things a mother dreams of doing with her child once they are born.

Investigating DNA revelations that say her father is a man she never met, Paige learns about her mother's past as a straitlaced university student who had a one-night stand with the campus golden boy.