The long-awaited novelty from Masha Traub. As always easy, as always brilliant, as always there is something to smile about and something to think about.

This book was formed from those very notorious notes in a notebook that readers so often ask about. I rarely take notes, because I still forget where I wrote it down. I even kept this notebook only for the reason that a two-year-old baby, the daughter of my friend, drew in it, and her first-grader sister came up with her own type. In the same notebook, I wrote funny rhymes for her and explained the difference between hard and soft signs, which seemed the same to a first grader. “Well, who invented all these letters? Did they even think about children? - my student was indignant ... And here - notes for a line, two, paragraph. Real situations that shocked me, surprised, made me laugh. This book is a collection of little stories about big feelings.

“When Mom is You,” which the author herself defines as “a collection of little stories about big feelings,” is densely populated with characters: here is a little girl who does not understand the difference between hard and soft signs, here is a cook from a pioneer camp, whose heart has long been covered with a scab | here is a girl from a nomenclature family, whom her parents sent to the camp “for socialization”, and her friend, whom the same parents chose to play the role of a host.

Masha moves us from era to era - from Soviet times to the present, bringing to the stage one hero after another, forcing us to empathize and resent. And invariably admire the talent of the author - an unsurpassed storyteller, who notices in ordinary life what is hidden for others.

In this book you will find everything that Masha Traub appreciates: a light style, an instant transition from comic to tragic, heroes who are similar to your friends and family, and in some way subtly different from all other people.