I can sum up Meet Robby the C-130 in two words: Absolutely Delightful! This children’s book is definitely a home run swing. Meet Robby the C-130 is a book which was created to help military children handle the times when either mommy or daddy is deployed and away from home. With the occupation of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, absentee parents have become a way of life for many military families. Beth Mahoney writes of what she knows well, having grown up as a child of the military, turned military wife of 17 years. She is raising her 3 children while her husband is frequently deployed, along with running a military parenting organization.
Meet Robby the C-130 starts off by introducing the child to the C-130 airplane and describes the types of cargo that this plane carries. It then moves on to introduce the standard crew that takes care of Robby and what they do. Ms. Mahoney then delves into the emotional side of how Robby feels when he has to be away from his family and the things he does that help make him feel better. Throughout the course of the story, she relates what Robby is feeling to how the children feel when a parent is absent. At the back of the book are several pages which prompt children to draw their own pictures depicting how they feel, what mommy and daddy look like and so on. In addition to those pages, there is a page with tips for parents on how to use the book.
While the story is cute and written to the level of the intended audience, what makes Robby such a charming book is the illustrations. Zachary Porter does a marvellous job of capturing the essence of the words. Just to look at the pictures of Robby makes me smile. There is one page which describes Robby missing his family while he is deployed and the picture shows Robby with his head on a pillow, crying while looking at a picture and clutching his teddy bear. Priceless! I can just hear my two year old niece saying, “Poor Robby! He’s so sad.” And just because she is such an empathetic little person, she may even shed a tear because she is sad that Robby is sad.
Meet Robby the C-130 was created with military children as its primary market, however, I feel that the appeal of this book is much broader. It appeals not only to military children who have to deal with mommy or daddy deploying, but also to any child who has a parent who must leave for any reason, and as a tool for teaching children who are not dealing with separation that there are children who do. A copy of Robby will definitely be finding its way into my niece’s Christmas package this year. It is a terrific addition to any Christmas stocking.
