17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore [Hardcover]

Jenny Offill (Author), Nancy Carpenter (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

I had an idea to staple my brother's hair to his pillow. I am not allowed to use the stapler anymore.Here's a kid full of ideas, all day long. For example, in the morning, gluing her brother's bunny slippers to the floor sounds like a good plan. But now she's not allowed to use glue anymore. And what about when she shows Joey Whipple her underpants—they're only underpants, right? Turns out she's not allowed to do that again, either. And isn't broccoli the perfect gift for any brother? It's just too bad her parents don't think so. But she has the last laugh in this humerous first picture book by an acclaimed novelist of books for adults.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 3–Ingenious artwork–a flawless marriage of digital imagery and pen-and-ink–is indisputably the focus of this winning title. In it, an incorrigible little girl lists all the bright ideas she's ever had and the various ways they've gotten her into trouble. From stapling her brother's hair to his pillow (no more stapler) to gluing his slippers to the floor (no more glue), her outside-the-box thinking attracts plenty of attention, all of it negative. Carpenter brings depth and texture to each spread by adjusting photo-realistic elements to scale and embedding them into the art. The effect is both striking and subtle–real wood grain, blades of grass, the chrome-plated details on classroom furniture–all are seamlessly integrated around a winsome cast of well-drawn characters. Some picture books are overconceptualized, overdesigned, and generally overdone, but this one is just about picture-perfect.–Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Offill's little narrator staples her brother's hair to his pillow, walks backward across the pedestrian crossing, and shows Joey Whipple her underpants when she does handstands in the schoolyard. Clear line-and-watercolor spreads add to the fun as the outrageous little rebel lies and boasts in class and washes her hands in the dog's dinner bowl. When she talks about freezing a dead fly in an ice cube, the picture shows her little brother drinking from a glass that contains an ice cube. She is unfazed by all the scowls she gets for acting up, though she says "I'm sorry" to her mom at the end. In the sweet pink picture of their warm embrace, however, she is plainly looking over her shoulder at the reader as she reaches for that stapler. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Schwartz & Wade (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375835962
• ISBN-13: 978-0375835964
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 0.4 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #732,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Daughter Loves It!, August 28, 2007

By 

Dwight McCann "So Much To Do, So Little Time" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore (Hardcover)

I read the reviews before ordering this book and was a bit concerned: reviewers either hated it or loved it. Now I know why. It is a wonderful book if your child has a good connection to reality (that is, they know the difference between fantasy and reality ... they know imaginary friends aren't real) because it is fun. My 5-1/2 year old daughter makes my wife read it to her twice in a row each night. Yes, it does have a page where it mentions showing underwear ... I am sure this horrifies some parents. My kid went by that page and never gave it a thought ... I don't think this book will turn my daughter into a harlot! :-) It is fun. It is interesting. It pushes some boundaries. But I don't worry my daughter will be stapling anyone to a pillow ... I set a good example of appropriate behavior that no book is going to unsettle!

I have come back to add another observation: I believe that censoring everything to which a child is exposed so that only "model" behavior is experienced serves to handicap them. A child must learn to deal with ambiguity, to make right choices, to know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, and this is impossible if the world is always presented in perfection. If one is offended by the book ending it should become a huge opportunity to explore the subtleties involved with a child who is likely at the right age to consider such things relevant.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One thing you should do right away ... read this book!, March 7, 2007

By 

Anne B. Levy "bookbuds.net" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore (Hardcover)

The girl on the cover is the kind of willful, recidivist imp whose imaginary friends must all be nervous around her. We start with her stapling her brother's hair to the pillow, and it goes downhill from there. She walks backwards to school--stopping traffic--and flashes her panties and, oh dear, just about everything awful. And awfully funny.

Each page repeats, "I had an idea to do X ... I'm not allowed to do X anymore," which gets more brazen and amusing as her calculated terrors add up. The pen-and-ink characters are fully realized, including our mussy-haired protagonist, drawn with a minimalist's attention to each stroke of the pen. They inhabit a digitally remade world of "real" artifacts refitted to the page, even down to their plastic desks or the crossing guard's vest.

This is a brilliantly executed concept, dropping simple figures into a complex environment; even the text was printed out, crumpled and roughed up with an emory board to achieve that faux stressed look that fits the girl's blithely destructive personality.

But will a real kid appreciate all this? Only if she's old enough to pretend not to know better.

160 of 195 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Atrocious, August 8, 2007

By 

K. Egan (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore (Hardcover)

I work in an elementary school library, so I'm always looking for new books to introduce the children to. I read this in a bookstore and while I loved the illustrations, no illustrations could compensate for the story.

This is a beautifully designed book. It is intriguing visually, pulling the reader in with an overload of imagery. I could definitely see a child tracing the pages with a finger to figure out where it all starts and ends.

That said, I would never read this to a child. The protagonist is rewarded for being manipulative, destructive, and dishonest. I am horrified that this is being lauded as a best book for kids. This is a book that makes a hero out of a spoiled brat, and instructs a child to lie to enjoy themselves. There are so many good picture books out there; I highly recommend you leave this on the shelf.