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.

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."