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REVIEW
It’s a Birdie, it’s a plane – it’s Super Mom II You think you’re juggling a lot, what with all the kids, school, PTA fundraising, husbands and keeping the house clean? Try saving the world on top of it. In heels, no less! While you’re at it, try convincing your best friend, who thinks you’re losing it because you could swear that Mr. Clean winked at you, that you’re not going crazy. And try fending off your ex-husband because he’s seriously putting the moves on you (what’s that about?), not to mention your boyfriend who is totally bent on proposing to you. Try watching your son warm the bench during the baseball season while his stepbrother-to-be (who he already hates) is out playing ball. Oh, and don’t forget your daughter, who has this new friend who wears questionable clothes and colors her hair questionable colors, and…okay, is just plain questionable all the way around. And as if that’s not enough, try doing it all while uncovering scandal in the mayor’s office, taking on brutish “baseball parents,” and solving a mystery that will save the whole town. Try getting shot at, beat up, tied up and gagged (and, really, is it too much to ask to have a pantyhose that will live up to that?). And to top it all off…try battling, every time you go after a bad guy, public speculation that it’s “that time of the month.” Could you do it? I doubt it. There’s only one mom I know who could do all that – Super Mom! Faster than a speeding Kool-Aid stain, more powerful than chocolate ice cream on white carpet, Super Mom is back to save the world, one baseball fan at a time. Birdie Lee, divorced mother of two teenagers, is mild-mannered and insecure, if not a little bumbling by nature. But where there’s a baseball team in trouble and a corrupt mayor to unmask, Birdie is there before you can say “Clean up on aisle four,” as Super Mom, ready to rescue the town of Astro Park, whether they want to be saved or not. Author Melanie Lynne Hauser (“Confessions of a Super Mom”) is back to prove that there is nothing more super than a mom in “Super Mom Saves the World.” With her soft wit, Hauser creates a lovable, flawed and charmingly “real” character in Birdie Lee, which is an amazing feat considering Birdie is known to shoot cleaning fluid out of her fingertips. Hauser weaves an engaging story that has us following Birdie as she balances her roles as mom and Super Mom; ex-wife and fiancé; mother and future stepmother; parent and friend – the things we all balance in one form or another on a daily basis. The final chapters of the book, Hauser has us turning pages quickly, wondering: Will Carl woo Birdie into marriage? Will Kelly let Vienna lead her astray? Will Doctor Dan win Birdie back? What will happen to Janitor Bingo? Will Astro Park be saved from certain doom? And how do I get one of those adorable little scrubbing bubbles for myself? I have to admit that at first I feared Hauser’s subject to be too contrasting – taking something that has throughout history been “boy territory” (super heroes and baseball) and turning it into women’s fiction. No way, I thought, can I start pulling for a superhero. No way can she make this girly enough to engage me. But I wasn’t but a few chapters in before I realized that a million testosterone-laden comic book creators must be quaking in their boots because Birdie is not the superhero we moms of boys traditionally think of (think either nerdy-scientists-turned-powerful or scantily-clad super girls with bosoms the size of bowling balls). Hauser’s superhero really works! What’s more, she’s not all that different from me! (Well. Except for the whole high heels and apron thing.) “Super Mom Saves the World” will make a great summer read, one that just might have you thinking you’re just a mask shy of saving the world. With a little Swiffer cleaning fluid, an Apron of Anticipation, and a pair of high heels (who needs pantyhose, really?), you could just be super, too, Mom. Jennifer Brown writes and moms from her home in Liberty, Missouri. Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck global humor award, her humor column regularly appears in The Kansas City Star. Catch her humor-writing classes, Funny One and Funny, Too!, at LssWritingSchool.com. You may contact Jennifer at zoise30@gmail.com. And if you don’t mind the smell of maple syrup, she just might write back!
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