The Mother Market (formerly The Mummy Market)

By Nancy Brelis

Copyright 1966

 

If you had asked me, when I was in about third through sixth grades, what one of my favorite books was, I would have mentioned The Mother Market.  I bought it one summer at the bookstore in the mall with some of my birthday money ($1.50) and proceeded to read it countless times over the next several years.  

 

Three children, Elizabeth, Jenny, and Harry were in an unfortunate situation.  They didn’t have a mother - not that they remembered anyway.  Instead, they had an awful housekeeper they called The Gloom.  During a visit to their next-door neighbor, Mrs. Cavour, they learned of the Mother Market where they would be able to choose a mother to replace The Gloom.   

The children followed Mrs. Cavour’s directions to the market where they found rows of booths, each with a mother they could interview and choose to take home, if they wish. Each woman has props and decorations in her booth, advertising the type of mother she would be. 

The children make a couple of mistakes at first, choosing first a too sweet, too cautious mother; then a too tough, too competitive mother.  Eventually, when they finally decide to talk to the lonely looking woman sitting in a plain booth, they have found their match – their real mother.

I remember my own mother asking me one time why I liked the book so much.  At the time I wasn’t sure.  I certainly never longed to try out a different mother!  Looking back, I think the reason is the idea that children could have so much control over their life that they could make such huge decisions on their own.  

I recently re-read this book for the first time as an adult.  I found some humor in it that I didn’t catch as a child.  When speaking to the boy at the information booth during their first trip to the Mother Market, the children find out that there is also a Daddy Market.  They are warned, however, to just pick one.  

“You can go there instead,” said the boy, “but our most important rule is that no one can go to both at once.  It’s always disastrous.”

That went completely over my head as a child and now it makes me laugh out loud!

I happen to still have my childhood copy of The Mother Market, but out of curiosity, I researched used copies online.   They seem to be going for no less than $60.  In my research, I came across a 1994 movie based on this book that I was able to watch for free on Hulu.  So, if you’d like to know more about this charming story and don’t want to spend $60.00 on the book, try watching the movie Trading Mom.