Mamma Moo pretends
Text: Jujja Wieslander
Illustrations: Sven Nordqvist
Rabén & Sjögren 2018
“Crow, we have to do something! We can pretend it’s summer!” Mamma Moo tapped an icicle. Pling! It broke off.
“Moo, I’m pretending that it’s ice cream!”
“What are you doing, Mamma Moo? Are you licking the icicle?! That’s really dangerous!”
“It’s only water, Crow.”
“It could be poisoned water!”
“Moo, that’s silly. Come on, let’s go see if the lake has frozen.”
Jujja’s comments about the book
It’s winter. Mamma Moo is gloomy. “Days are so short and grey and nights are so long and dark,” she sighs. I very much share her feelings. I always long for spring and warmth during winter. Mamma Moo doesn’t get quite as morose as I do, it’s easier for her to make-believe. She simply pretends that it’s summer! Or at least a real winter with SNOW. Crow has a harder time going along with her flights of imagination. He can’t remember the boat they rode; after all, it is covered under a layer of snow. Nor does he want to make snow angels, and when Mamma Moo rides a snow slide, it ends with a crow-catastrophe. Poor Crow!
Still, Sven Nordqvist’s illustrations in this book can make any and all haters of winter long to sit with Mamma Moo and Crow in a tree, watching large, sparkling snowflakes slowly falling all around.