Estonian / Estonia
Emme draakon
(Mommy’s dragon)
Jaaks, Piret
(text)
Tammik, Marju
(illus.)
[Saue]: Päike ja pilv, 2019. – [34] p.
ISBN 978-9949-7376-3-5
Mother | Daughter | Rage | Exhaustion | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2020
There’s a dragon living in Mommy – this much the young first-person narrator knows for sure. Her puerile thought processes and explanatory schemes help her determine how, when, and why the dragon breaks out of her mother, snarling and grumbling. Usually it appears when the little girl is around, but there’s no lawful regularity. Not even Mommy knows what the dragon looks like or how to keep it at bay, which troubles the girl. Thankfully, though, Mommy knows the dragon will go away again and leave them both in peace. In an unpretentious way and from the child’s perspective, Piret Jaaks (b. 1980) tells a tale of parental strain and shows how sometimes a dragon just needs to break out of mothers and fathers, even though they don’t want it to. The bright, collage-like illustrations by Marju Tammik (b. 1972) counterbalance the subject matter with great levity and show a wonderful mother-daughter relationship that is as turbulent as it is loving. [KW]