Momo

It took me a long time to get my hands on an English copy of Momo. I had high expectations as The Neverending Story is by far my favorite story ever. I was not disappointed in the least. An amazing story with a well thought out message that resonates deep within the human experience. My 8 yr old and I read it together. Her love of books has been slower to develop than my other children. She became so invested in the story and characters I saw in her, for the first time, that conflict that only comes when you finish a book that has captured your heart. She is now re-reading it on her own. I caught her curled up in bed with a flashlight late at night, when she should have been sleeping..when I asked her what she was doing she said "I needed to go see Momo."

Maybe the reason that this is the hardest Michael Ende book to find in English is that it really is telling children a lot about the real nature of the society, particularly the wonderful "free market economy" part of it, as well as "productivity" and "gross domestic product" and the rest. It is a dangerous book, it really makes you think about all the benefits of the new global religion of consumerism. Momo is a masterpiece, no doubt about it. It is a children's book, and I read it as a child, and it made me look differently at the world. It does not take its intended audience (children) for fools and treats them as they deserve (as reasonable, open-minded children, not bigotted, senseless adults). It has great comedic moments (stories of Girolamo) and has wonderfully created villain (the cigarette smoking gray men), as well as cool characters like Caseiopeia. it is a perfect children's novel and will keep you reading and re-reading for years to come.

I still have my first and only edition of this book, that I read before "The Never Ending Story" became famous and was turned into a film, making Michael Ende a recognizable name.I love reading stories about beautiful princesses, but Momo is a princess of a different kind.She's on her own, homeless and destitute, without a family or means of her own. Her magical power is not that of a lovely face and a providential Godmother, but the fact that she remains a lovely, giving person, uncorrupted by her misfortune and possesses a supernatural ability to listen to others. Reading the book you understand just how and why such an apparently small thing can be so life changing, more so than any "action".The book is ostensibly about how time is subjective, about how people "save time" by doing as little as possible the very things that make life worth living - in order to have more time to do them later on, when one has "more time" for that sort of thing - only to get there and realize that it's too late, life has passed you by, and you've got no more time left to enjoy them any further, or any one to enjoy them with.But the reason I read it time and again was because of Momo and her two best friends, the old man and the young man, who are so completely different from each other; The turtle Cassandra, the forest of clocks, the one hour flowers...I can't stress enough how much you need to buy this book.

I read Momo as a kid, and loved it. But it was not until I was an adult that I got the message behind this beautiful fantasy story for kids. I was shocked at how the novel was an allegory of modern times, of the loss of values, of how the meaning and joy of life get lost if you let yourself be carried away by ambition and haste. Modern society argues this is the right way to make use of your time--but is it? A book about chosing what you do with the time you have in your heart, written beautifully. Also, the character of Momo is absolutely magical. Great for anyone, any time, any place. HOW CAN IT BE OUT OF PRINT????

This is by far my favorite story. Mr. Ende wrote a children story to read by adults who are missing and appreciating the most important things in life. Read it, this masterpiece will change the way you enjoy life and perhaps will help to realize how the modern life is taking away the most precious and simple things in your valuable and finite time. Mr. Ende was one of the best authors of the century. I regret that such a wonderful book is not vailable in English.

It's very seldom that a book both takes hold of your heart *and* guides you through metaphors to notice something about reality that had previously escaped you. 'Momo' is such a book. Set in a fantasy world that parallels what we would consider ideal, 'Momo' is the story of a special girl observeing and trying to cope with/battle against the slow and unnoticed appearance of an army of grey men -- intent on stealing the free time from all the people in her world. The effects of this time theft is clever and in a way haunting; the world begins to become modernized, looking more and more like our own. To give away any more then that would be to give away the plot; trust me, it's a wonderfull, wonderfull read for adults and kids alike. I rank it up there with C.S. Lewis's "The Chronicals of Narnia".