Big Momma Makes the World

"Among the many creation retellings and variations, this one takes the cake." — THE HORN BOOK (starred review)

When Big Momma makes the world, she doesn’t mess around. With a baby on her hip and laundry piling up, she demands light and dark, earth and sky, creepers and crawlers, and lots of folks to trade stories with on the front porch. And when the work is done, Big Momma, she is pleased all right. "That’s good," she says. "That’s real good." With down-home language and infectious rhythms, Phyllis Root spins a creation myth like no other, brilliantly illustrated by the incomparable Helen Oxenbury.

Publishers Weekly

In this sassy creation myth that tweaks the first chapter of Genesis, Big Momma "roll[s] up her sleeves" and gets down to business ("Wasn't easy, either, with that little baby sitting on her hip"). " `Light,' said Big Momma. And you better believe there was light.' " Here Oxenbury shows mother and child jubilantly emerging from a watery world ("There was water, water everywhere") to greet the light at the surface. At the close of each day, a pleased Big Momma views her handiwork and pronounces a refrain that echoes the King James Bible "That's good. That's real good." On the sixth day, in a sly nod to another take on the world's beginnings, Big Momma "finish[es] things off in one big bang"-fashioning a host of creatures. As a final touch, the matriarch uses "leftover mud" to shape "some folks to keep me company" and charges them with caring for her creation. Root infuses her tale with a joyful spirit, and her lyrical vernacular trips off the tongue. Zaftig Big Momma and her chubby cherub are equally winning, and Oxenbury playfully tracks the creation process with compositions that move through subtle shades of blue and black and then transform with the addition of the golden shades of sunshine, the verdant greens of earth and an explosion of hues as birds, fish and more multiply across the pages. A gentle spin on the Genesis story sure to get youngsters talking. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Phyllis Root has written many books for children, including Oliver Finds His Way, What Baby Wants, Rattletrap Car, and Kiss the Cow! She says that the idea for Big Momma Makes the World came from a long-ago family car trip through the West. "My children were restless, yet fascinated by the unfamiliar scenery. They made up stories about why the landscape looked the way it did, and God and a baby were in lots of the stories." Phyllis Root lives in Minnesota with her two daughters.

Helen Oxenbury is one of today’s most acclaimed illustrators. Among her books are Lewis Carroll’s ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, which won a Kate Greenaway Medal; Trish Cooke’s SO MUCH; Martin Waddell’s FARMER DUCK; and Michael Rosen’s WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT. She says of working on BIG MOMMA MAKES THE WORLD, "As I read Phyllis’s text, I imagined Big Momma as part Buddha, part housewife. . . . It was intimidating to create a whole world, but very enjoyable."