With suits, briefcases, cigars, and ashen faces, they set about instructing the townspeople to be more efficient by eliminating pointless activities like socializing, creating, and daydreaming. Then, imperceptibly at first, the Men in Grey appear. “Lots of things take time,” Ende explains, “and time was Momo’s only form of wealth.” Adults talk through their problems with her, and children find their games of make-believe become more real when Momo is at the helm. When asked about her origins, she simply says, “As far as I can remember, I’ve always been around.” But with her kindness and gift for listening, Momo quickly slips into the role of town peacekeeper. (Although it could make for an excellent episode of Black Mirror today.) Momo is supposedly an orphan when she arrives in a fictional, Italianate town. Unlike The Neverending Story, The Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, and other fantasy novels popular with young readers, Momo offers no epic journey or triumphant homecoming. But on a deeper level, the two novels are unapologetically humanist works that teach children to nurture the kind of quiet, crucial power that comes from being different, and from understanding what adults very often cannot. For one, A Wrinkle in Time and Momo both feature memorably drawn young heroines who are pulled into fantastical, time-bending conflicts. And it is, in many ways, a fitting companion to L’Engle’s novel. Though it never attained name recognition in the United States, Momo is a classic in Ende’s home country and in much of Europe. Americans might be more familiar with the tale’s German author, Michael Ende, via his book The Neverending Story, which was made into the cult 1984 film of the same name. That’s the premise of the strange but beautiful children’s fantasy novel Momo, which was published 45 years ago. But what if the seconds, minutes, and hours of the day could be stolen away? And what if everyone was too busy to notice? In other childhood tales, time is a barrier to be broken, or a hidden door to another world. In Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved novel A Wrinkle in Time-whose long-awaited film adaptation hit theaters Friday-time can be bent (or tessered) to allow mortals to travel the universe at great speeds.
But literature for young readers often handles the concept with a greater sense of imagination and possibility.
From an early age, many children learn that time is precious, before growing into adults who see it as a commodity to be managed at all costs.
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