My Cousin Momo

 By Zachariah Ohora

I picked this book up because "No Fits Nilson" wasn't too bad, because I like the art style, and because the cover looked pretty great.

Yeah, I judged a book by its cover.  I want to like this book because I like the art.  And I feel like I'm crazy to hate on it so much, because the internet loves it.

 Here's Momo crying after his cousins bully him for being different.  I was really hoping, from the cover, that he'd be the cool cousin. He looks SO COOL.  But no.  Being fat and wearing sweatbands makes you a huge loser.

What really gets my goat is that the main characters are angry and annoyed with Momo for being weird or different.  We accept that kind of behaviour as normal with kids.  We expect it of kids.  I remember being a weird kid.  I wasn't that weird, but every once in a while I'd deviate from a teacher's instructions and do something creative and some kids were so ANGRY about it.  I feel like this book normalizes that kind of behaviour, while being so lazy in characterizing the 'different' and 'weird' Momo as just some fat nerd.

And while this book is obviously geared at kids who already behave poorly towards others, it is so condescending.  Oh, right, they're going to suddenly discover by the last page that their cousin is cool and start dressing like him?  No.  They won't.  They're going to feel like they can never really accept him without being cast out by the rest of their peer group and at best they'll maintain an awkward relationship with him up until adulthood when maybe they'll just pretend none of the bullying happened.

There's a place between disliking someone and emulating them.  It's called acceptance.  This book completely misses the point.

It is, however, highly marketable.