Flour Babies [School & Library Binding]

Anne Fine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Despite the scorn of the other boys in Room 8 about the assignment to care for their ""flour babies""--bags of flour that must be kept dry, mud-free, and safe from harm--Simon, a clumsy misfit, begins to enjoy caring for his ""baby.""

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Flour babies are the six-pound sacks of flour that the boys in Room 8--the classroom for underachievers and behavioral problems at the St. Boniface School --have been told to treat as real babies for three weeks, for the purposes of scientific inquiry. They are to keep the flour babies "clean and dry at all times," to maintain their proper weight ("Flour babies will be put on the official scales twice a week to check for any weight loss"), and never, never to leave their side, unless "a responsible babysitter can be arranged." But while Robin Delaney has drop-kicked his flour baby into the creek, burly Simon Martin experiences a true tenderness toward his. He keeps "her" safe during soccer practice, even though he gets kicked off the team in the process. Simon writes in his journal each day ("reproductions" of the entries appear here), he finds himself excited and involved in school for the first time; he simultaneously discovers a new appreciation for his mother and confronts previously buried feelings about his absent father. Fine ( Alias Mrs. Doubtfire ) writes with delicious wit and delicate sympathy. She takes a down-to-earth scenario and, like her protagonist, turns it into an extraordinary adventure in living and learning. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-9-This new novel by the author of Alias Madame Doubtfire (Little, 1988) is certain to be a hit. One can even envision Robin Williams in the role of Mr. Cassidy, teacher of Room 8, which houses the 19 boys who are the Sads and the Bads at St. Boniface School. These boys, who "have the boredom thresholds of brain-damaged gnats," choose as their science project The Great Flour Baby Experiment: each takes full-time responsibility for a six lb. bag of white flour, with instructions to keep it dry, safe from harm, and absolutely mud-free. All rapidly lose patience with the project-all, that is, but Simon Martin, who goes "moon-eyed" over his flour baby. Simon not only learns of the immense yet often tedious responsibilities of parenthood, but also comes to a deeper understanding of his own father's absence and an appreciation of his mother's plight as a single parent. Eve Bunting's Our Sixth Grade Sugar Babies (Lippincott, 1990) swaps sugar for flour and is written for a younger audience, yet is based on a similar idea. But, while the premise isn't new, Fine's treatment of the subject, a wonderful blend of hilarity and poignancy, makes the book an outstanding one. The author has a real understanding of adolescents-indeed, of human nature in general. Her characters are finely drawn; even the most amusing never become caricatures, but rather are fully realized and memorable.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 178 pages
• Publisher: Topeka Bindery (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785779396
• ISBN-13: 978-0785779391
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,895,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Take one fatherless boy. Add one sack of flour. Stir., August 2, 2004

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flour Babies (Mass Market Paperback)

Books concerning teenage fatherhood have blossomed over the last few years. I'm not certain what the cause of this trend is, and I don't know where it will end. Certainly some fabulous books have resulted, of course. The multi-award winning, "First Part Last", is probably the best known of these adolescent daddy stories. Lesser known, and far cheerier, is the delightful "Flour Babies" by Anne Fine. Taking a concept that has been used in everything from an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to an episode of "The Cosby Show", this story concentrates on a boy, his adorable sack of flour, and his attempts to come to terms with his own absentee pop.

When Mr. Cassidy gets stuck with the worst possible students in Room 8 he isn't surprised. When he is stuck giving these same students a lame project for the upcoming Science Fair he remains unsurprised. But when the project turns out to concern Flour Babies, he's livid. In this project the teacher must hand a six-pound burlap sack of flour to each of his students. Over the course of several weeks these lagabout kids must take extra special care of their new babies. Of course, Cassidy is convinced that this project will only lead to flour exploding in his classroom at the hands of his rowdy kids. When the biggest toughest underachiever of them all, Simon Martin, misunderstands and thinks that the end of the project will result in a grand flour baby kick-off, he throws himself headlong into his baby's care. As time goes by, Simon begins to care deeply for his baby and his thoughts turn to the father that abandoned him when he was a babe. Through his own slow thought processes, Simon learns to understand what fatherhood entails and what it truly means to be unencumbered and young.

This book was originally published in Britain and as such I initially assumed that it took place overseas. But about the time Simon's mom comments that his deadbeat dad took off for Chicago when he left, I came to the horrific realization that this book was trying to be American. Trying and failing. I mean, honestly. This is the kind of book that contains sentences like, "his dad was a duffer" and has characters that say "Sir" all the time and have names like "Simon". Also, the book kind of decomposes towards the end. While the storyline up until the last 2 or so chapters has been fine, suddenly Anne Fine tacks on a Mel Brooks type of let's-make-everything-crazy finale. You've got a previously sympathetic teacher giving a ridiculous (and increasing) number of detentions, a crazy escape via running along the tops of the school's desks, and a grand finish of thick floating flour everywhere. I only wish the writing could have kept up, but it didn't.

Which isn't to say there isn't a lot going for this book. Admittedly, the students keep breaking into bizarre non-teenage sentences from time to time but they're enjoyable characters. For his part, Simon is a kind of relief to read. I was convinced that this book would turn out to be another tale in which a wise but crazy teacher gives his tough students a true challenge and at the end they all beat the science nerds because someone actually took the time to believe in them. Not a chance. Simon Martin is a good example of that. He's unrepentantly thick at the beginning of the book and though he's worked out some issues by the end, he's unrepentantly thick there too. And finally, the biggest and best reason to read this book; it's darned funny. I think I was officially won over when the teacher watching the detention students found herself hoping that Simon would entertain her that day with the Bloodied Tongue. This is where Simon empties surreptitiously an entire cartridge of red ink from a pen onto his tongue and then, "let this gory-looking monstrosity out of his mouth for the whole rest of the detention, rendering her incapable of eating her sandwich but amusing her mightily". Any book that uses humor correctly has my love already.

"Flour Babies" apparently won the British Carnegie Medal (which corresponds to our Newbery Medal over here stateside) which surprises me a little. I think it's great but I wouldn't necessarily cover it with awards. Still, if you're looking for a fun read that's not only amusing but also great to pick up and reread, I think this book's for you. Three cheers for those little sack o' flours and the boys that love 'em so.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Okay, August 6, 2005

By 

Genine Silverio "Genine" (Pearland TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flour Babies (Mass Market Paperback)

Flour Babies by Anne Fine was an okay book to read, but like other people say, I have read better, and anyways I rate this book four stars. It's about this boy named Simon Martin. He is in this class, and the teacher assigns them this assignment in which they have to take care of these sacks of flour as if they were babies for twenty-one days. He soon find out that the task indeed is quite hard. Taking care of the 'baby' makes him think about his own personal life, and why did his father leave the family when he was only six weeks old.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of The Flour Babies Book, December 4, 2002

By 

Leah Senior (Sheffield, england) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flour Babies (Mass Market Paperback)

The flour babies book is about a class of boys(4c)who have a flour baby each to look after for three weeks. Also Simon Martin wants to find out about his father and Sajid Mahmoud opened a creche for the flour babies.

I thought that the book was good in some chapters but, in others it was bad, firstly i thought it was good because it was interesting, funny and a lot happened and some of the words were difficult to understand.

Some of the words i didn't understand are meagre, unwieldy, banished and credentials.

I think i would recommend it to everyone that likes a bit of comedy. I wouldn't recommend it to smaller children under 10 years.

Some of the characters i thought was good were Martin Simon, Simon Martin,Sajid Mahmoud, Mr Cartwright and Dr Feltham.