In this creation story, it is Big Momma who makes the world. Even with a small baby on her hip, Big Momma manages to summon light and dark and make the stars and the moon. She even tells the earth to “get over here.” While “Baby liked it all right just the way it was,” Big Momma needs some grass and some animals and people to keep her company. And when she sees what she has done, she declares, “That’s good. Real good.” With each new day, Big Momma adds more to the world, until it eventually looks a lot like the world we know. The watercolors that accompany the text are bright and uplifting in this creation story that many will find familiar but not predictable. (Ages 5–8)

Powerful, warm, and utterly original, this no-nonsense tall tale of Big Momma the creator is a jubilant celebration of our beautiful world - and a reminder to take good care of it.


"Earth," said Big Momma, "Get over here."
And it did.
All one big ball of mud it was,
nothing much to look at.
Baby liked it all right just the way it was,
but Big Momma wasn’t finished yet.

When Big Momma makes the world, she doesn’t mess around. With a little 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, storyteller Phyllis Root spins a creation myth like no other, brilliantly illustrated by the incomparable Helen Oxenbury.