Owl and the Mystery of Tomorrow

The notion of the passage of time, and especially the idea of there being a past, a present and a future, is a tricky one for young children to understand. That may be why some canny adult came up with counting “sleeps” to make it easier to comprehend waiting for something that is to come.

Owl, Mouse. Rabbit and Hedgehog are pretty confident about what TODAY is. (Each time today, yesterday or tomorrow is mentioned, the word is written in all capital letters.)

Hedgehog feels grumpy TODAY. He has two leaves
stuck in his quills!
And what is Mouse up to? She walks away and comes
back with a bucket.
TODAY Rabbit is as perky as he always is.
And Owl? She is thinking and wondering about…TOMORROW!

Mouse has an idea about TOMORROW. She knows that the blueberries will be ready for picking at a certain time. TOMORROW may be too late, so she has to go off with her bucket and pick them TODAY.

Rabbit and Hedgehog continue trying to explain TOMORROW to Owl, but he simply does not get it. The three think that staying up all night might bring some clarity to the subject. “Maybe something happens in the middle of the night,” Hedgehog says. However waiting around in the dark surroundings only provides a few shivers of fear, reaching a scary climax with the dawn appearance of some kind of blue apparition. Relief! It is just Mouse, covered in blueberry juice.
The next turn of events makes the whole thing just a bit more confusing when Mouse finds an invitation to a party at Bird’s “TOMORROW AT 2 P.M.”. Owl is afraid that he has already missed the festivities, but Mouse reassures him.

“Don’t worry,” Mouse says with a laugh.
“The letter arrived YESTERDAY, and it says TOMORROW.
Now TOMORROW is here, so the party is TODAY!
Is everyone ready to go?”

By this point, I was wondering if I had a grasp on past, present and future myself. Things are not clarified in this passage:

“Oh, the party is starting soon!” Rabbit claps his paws.
“I hope there will be cake.”…
Owl is still thinking and wondering. Then, finally,
she gives a happy hoot. She understands what TOMORROW means.

Owl’s epiphany comes from nowhere, as far as I could see. The description of the party provides a jolly ending to the tale, but we are still left scratching our heads about it all. The idea for the story is a good one, but the author has rather tied herself in knots in trying to explain time in a child-friendly manner while giving each of the forest creatures a personality.

The book’s illustrations are more successful than the text, with pictorial elements executed in blocky shapes that have a feeling of collage; I was reminded of the work of Leo Lionni. All of the animals engage the audience with their large round eyes and expressive postures. Kiraly has used muted tones of grey, blue, mustard and terra cotta which definitely lend a Scandinavian sensibility.

Owl and the Mystery of Tomorrow was first published in Finland, the author’s native country, as Pieni suuri tarina huomisesta, in 2017.