Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Monster Mama by Liz Rosenberg, ill. Stephen Gammell
Remember when I said to Kate that I wanted to do a certain book for Mother’s Day but would settle on doing it for Halloween season instead? What book could possibly encompass those two holidays? Behold! The rare Mother’s Day/Halloween crossover hit! Brought to you by the illustrator best known for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (though he’ll always be the winner of the Longest Caldecott Award Speech to me), this is a marvelous combination of love for your mama and downright scares. What could be better? Today we discuss the man who typified the “controlled Jackson Pollock” look.
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
Kate always gloms onto the weird details in a book that few would notice. Today’s example: our hero (Patrick Edward) is sick and his mother is feeding him. Note the toy he’s holding onto. Is that . . . is that a tiny . . . chair?
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Kate also theorizes that this is the same car that this particular Monster Mama has owned since she was 16 and she just hasn’t bothered to replace yet. We also admire the rain. “The man is good with paint”.
Here, by the way, is a full-sized version of that toy chair Patrick Edward was holding earlier.
We both found it so strange that after hiding her face for the first part of the book, why did Gammell make the choice to reveal it in such an innocuous way mid-way through? I wonder if it was an editor’s note.
“My son has garnered powers and I need to stop him.”
Now THIS should have been the best possible way of introducing Monster Mama in her full glory for the first time. “This is what you want your mom to be when she defends you when people are picking on you.”
Kate Recommends: The Thursday Murder Club Mystery Series by Richard Osman
Betsy Recommends: Only Murders in the Building (Season 3)
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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One vote on kids who call their mom “Mama”– mine do (Pennsylvania modern day), and I have no idea how it started. It wasn’t a thing in our family before, and I think I called myself “Mommy” and so did other adults, but they both started with “Mama” and never gave it up. They’re both in high school now and still call me “Mama.”
I called my mama Mama up until I got married to my northern born husband. Not sure why I stopped, really. It just sort of went to Mom. My mom called her mama Mama up to the day she died. And my daddy, who, by the way I still call Daddy, called his mama Mama always too! 🙂 I think it might be a Southern thing? All of my Aunts and Uncles called my grandmother Mama. My husband thought it was weird. haha My three kids all call me Mom. Well, sometimes they call me Bruh.