I just watched the "waiting for mama" picture book breakdown now. It was very interesting, I spot the mama and the kid on the last spread in 3 seconds when David jumped his slides to that last spread. Was it a culture thing? we read images differently?
The ending is so brilliant... How did the illustrator come up with this? I am breath taken by the ending. My interpretation is more towards the dark side. I think death (of the child and the mother) is strongly implied(especially with the vignette scene right before the last spread), and so does the hope (for something more profound). Maybe the artist is hinting that ordinary people dies in the time of the war, but he is still hopeful for a better world/future somehow. I think maybe that is why the artist chose to depict the child and the mother walking home as a very small figure in a large scene.
I would love to read this book for my kid. I agree with Lee that it would not be her favourite book in any way. But I think it is important to read kids good books, even they may found it boring at time. It is like if I let my kid choose dinner everyday, she would end up only eating candy and pizza. hehehe... Does anyone know if the book is still in print, and where I can buy a new copy. I can only found it on abebooks (second hand).
I should recommend the book to be translated in Norwegian to my Norwegian editor. So many children's books in Norwegian is about death. I remember at some point I was in the local library trying to avoid borrowing a book about death to read for my then toddler daughter, and that was not an easy task.