Customer Reviews

I was Born to Be a Sister

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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Written by a sixth-grade girl, and featuring an audio CD of the story and original songs for brothers and sisters to sing, I Was Born To Be A Sister is a charming and informative picture book about learning to adapt to and cherish the presence of a new sibling in the family household. Covering the ups and downs of getting along, teaching new things, and the wonder of reliving things through younger eyes, I Was Born To Be A Sister is very highly recommended reading -- especially for children ages 3 to 7 whose families are anticipated the arrival of another child.

This book deals with sibling relationships in a unique way: it is "a true story" actually written by an older sibling who was in sixth grade at the time of publication. Sshe recaps her experiences with her younger brother from his birth to approximately preschool. With the older sister as narrator, this story has a very realistic tone. She discusses her mixed feelings about her brother at various stages of his development - from initial excitement to frustration to acceptance and love. Unfortunately, she leaps a bit from frustration to love. The reader is left wondering about the cause for this transformation. The watercolor illustrations are nicely done and compliment the text. But, they lack that indescribable "something" that brings true energy, life, and spirit to a great picture book, as opposed to just a nice one. Recommended children aged for aged 4 to 8 who are interested in books written by children.

This is a delightful story written by a 12 year old 6th grader living in Washington, D.C. about her own life. Written as a picture book with realistic colorful drawings, this story will appeal to most big sisters. Akaela can't wait to be a sister. But she quickly finds that babies aren't as much fun when they grow into toddlers. This book presents a positive view of family life and is a good readaloud for young children.

I got this book for my 3 year old daughter because of the topic. Didn't notice till afterwards that it was written by a child. If I had known that, I would have read the book more carefully instead of glancing through it.

Anyway, the child goes from loving being a big sister to "I hated being a big sister." I know in this day and age everyone wants to just say there deepest, most horrible feelings in the name of honesty, but I try to teach my daughter about how you can be honest while attempting to avoid the word "hate"--especially when speaking of something like being a sister.

Not to mention the girl doesn't *exactly* ever retract this thought specifically. She goes from hating being a sister and hoping her brother will get lost or get his own apartment to reviewing some nice things he does. So it kinda gets "better", but not better enough, in my humble opinion.

More importantly, when the story was over, I tried to act like it was a good book because I always want my daughter to be happy about reading together. I enthusiastically said (even though it wasn't heartfelt), "That was a good book, wasn't it?" And you should've seen the look on my daughter's face! She shook her head no--unlike her because she's usually not hard to please when it comes to stories. From the conversation that followed, I think she did not appreciate the negative tone the book took in the middle. She has a 2 year old brother and although he frustrates her at times, she's crazy about him and loves being a big sister.

In closing, some people will like this book, I'm sure. I just wanted readers to be aware of content so they can make an informed decision.