by Kristine Cuer

Created on: March 24, 2009

My eagerness to read this book started when I watched a Korean TV series, My Name is Kim Sam Soon. This book plays a big role in that show. The main character associated a little girl with Momo because like Momo she does not speak. Her ineligibility to speak is not because she is mute but because she'd rather listen than to speak. And that characteristic is very much the same with that little girl and Momo.

I was actually suprise that the author of Momo is the same author of the Neverending story. We all know how Big that book was. It was even adapted in a movie. I was even sceptical to read it at first. What kind of a name is Momo by the way? And Momo in our native language is associated to a monster. But in this book Momo is nothing like that. I'm a fan of reading children books by the way. And Momo is another addition to my list of favorite children's book.

Momo is a story of a little girl with an unknown origin whom the town people had learned to love because they could share all their secrets to her with out the fear of becoming a victim of gossip. And not only that, the amazing thing is though she don't literaly speak to them, after they had burst out their feeling to Momo, they'd realize that what they are doing is wrong or they'd realize what should be the solution of their problem. Everybody loves Momo that if one have a problem all they have to do is go and see Momo. There are some unknown entities though that do not like the existence of Momo because she is like a hindrance to their plan: to take all the time of each living soul.

The Men in Gray are the villains of this story. They are the owner of the Timesaving Bank. It's very true right? That only the children can not be desuaded that what they are doing is a waste of time. More often than not adults are more consumed to do "adult" things that we had forgotten how important it is to pause for a while. Momo is a symbolism that though there are people who had lost track of their time, there will always be that someone who will never give-in to earthly, materialistic things.

Momo will greatly remind us how important listening is, as in the right way of listening. We are more often inclined to listen to ourselves but Momo makes it a point that we listen to other people's side as well. But the main core of the novel is the value of time over money. Momo might be a children's book but adults will learn to love it too. A great depiction of what the society had came about.

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