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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Daughter Loves It!, August 28, 2007
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.
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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
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.
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160 of 195 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Atrocious, August 8, 2007
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.
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