Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that author/illustrator Maurice Sendak's trademark scariness is much more overt here, with ferocious-looking werewolves and skeletal mummies. Parents will want to look through the book alone before deciding whether or not it's appropriate for their kids.
Families can talk about and spend time exploring the intensely detailed illustrations. There's a lot of hidden humor in the background. Older kids may want to talk about the book in the context of Sendak's other picture books. What common do themes they see? (Wily children, perilous and sometimes scary situations, etc.)
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Dawn Friedman
Maurice Sendak's work is such a good fit with Matthew Reinhart's paper engineering that you have to wonder what took the publishing world so long to turn one of Sendak's books into a pop-up. That said, it's difficult to know what the target age for MOMMY? really is. It's too scary for little ones, and for older kids it doesn't have the content interest of other recent pop-ups from Robert Sabuda and Reinhart, like Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs and Castle: Medieval Days and Knights. Perhaps this pop-up is best thought of as an illustrated curiosity for families who are interested in the artistry of picture books.
The plot is simple: A baby wanders into a haunted house, where he's beset by monsters straight out of Hollywood's central casting. But instead of a familiar Bela Lugosi vampire, the baby is threatened by Nosferatu circa 1922. He's bald, yellow-eyed, and pretty darned scary, but the baby pacifies him with his, well, pacifier.
And so goes the story. Scary monsters are undone by the baby in blue pajamas. (Worth noting: The baby is the same fellow who shows up in other Sendak books. He bears a striking resemblance to Mickey from In the Night Kitchen and Max in Where the Wild Things Are.)
There's no dialogue here. The baby enters a room and asks "Mommy?" And then an overfold page shows how he conquers the monster he meets. The pop-ups are impressive, bursting out of the page but folding back easily. One of the most clever pop-ups is the mummy who's spun undone.
From The Book
"Mommy?"
Plot Summary:
Monsters meet their match in a smart baby looking for his mommy.
Related Books:
Other spooky books for brave young readers:
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
There's a Nightmare in my Closet by Mercer Mayer
There's a Witch Under the Stairs by Maggie Smith
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