DADS READ: “Big Momma Makes the World” by author Phyllis Root and illustrator Helen Oxenbury

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JER: “Big Momma Makes the World” by author Phyllis Root and illustrator Helen Oxenbury is a re-imagination of the biblical creation story. “When Big Momma made the world, she didn’t mess around [and it w]asn’t easy, either, with that little baby sitting on her hip”. I love this book and this reinterpretation if the creation story, because it centers around the realities of being a parent.  Why did Big Momma make “earth/mud”? Because she would “need a place to put my feet down when they needed putting down [and] when that baby if hers got to growing more”. She was working hard, but all the while “laundry was piling up and the dishes needed doing.  She figured she better finish things off in one Big Bang”. But even then, Big Momma wasn’t done.  She needed some folks to keep her company.  So she scooped up some leftover mud “and the next thing you know, there were folks everywhere.  Big folks and little folks.  Fat folks and thin folks.  All kinds of shades of folks.” Big Momma was sure to make lots of folks, so they “had a story to swap with Big Momma. ‘That’s good,’ said Big Momma. ‘That’s real good.’”

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