Rebecca Marklund’s MOMMA WOULD YOU EVER? uses simple text and sympathetic, unfussy illustrations to explore the ideas of what life, parenthood and growing up really mean. A young child queries his mother asking if she’d ever consider trading him for gold, or for diamonds, or for books. Each time she replies “never” and hugs him close. As the child grows, the questions change but the response remains the same. Until, near the end, the boy has become a man and he is visiting his ailing momma in her hospital bed. He asks if she’d trade him for all the time in the world. Of course she replies “never” but this time it is he who hugs her. Later still, in a bittersweet final section, the man and his pregnant partner are at his mother’s graveside. Then the final illustration and text reveal the man’s own son asking him if he would trade him for gold. No prize for guessing his answer. The circle is complete though the implication is that this will be a chain of love and compassion that continues ever onwards.
Veronika Hipolito’s illustrations capture the growth of the main characters beautifully and their love and warmth is readily apparent. As Marklund moves the story forward the changes in outlook and maturity are mirrored by the pictures. The later scenes at the hospital bedside are poignant and very well rendered.
Other than the boy and his eventual son there are no men in the book. His father is unseen and unreferenced–an absence which is neither explained nor commented on. Indeed at the point that the boy is building an elaborate tree house it’s quite refreshing that it’s his mother wearing the tool belt and handing him the planks rather than the traditional hands-on DIY dad. Whether very young readers may find the death of the mother discomforting would be a call that only a parent or guardian could make. For the most part though, Marklund is careful with her finely crafted words and in certain situations MOMMA WOULD YOU EVER? could prove useful as a tool by which aging and dying could be discussed.
Rebecca Marklund’s MOMMA WOULD YOU EVER? is a simple, yet subtle, children’s picture book that touches on serious life events such as aging and dying using careful text and sympathetic illustrations.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader