Please Don't Eat the Daisies [Hardcover]

Jean Kerr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 1979 | ISBN-10: 0848805526 | ISBN-13: 978-0848805524

Please Don't Eat the Daisies has sold millions of copies since its original publication in 1957. It became a film in 1960 starring David Niven and Doris Day, and a television series in 1965. Now you can hear why many consider Jean Kerr to be one of America's funniest writers. In this unique collection of essays, Kerr captures the perils of motherhood, wifehood, selfhood, and other assorted challenges. Listen and learn "How to Decorate in One Easy Breakdown" and how to drop those unwanted pounds with "Aunt Jean's Marshmallow Fudge Diet." Please Don't Eat the Daisies strikes modern listeners as particularly funny because these feminist issues are still relevant today.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Jean Kerr, author, playwright, and wife of theater critic Walter Kerr, has invited all of us to join her in the madcap life she describes as a (real life) suburban working mother of four boys. Although dated, these 1957 vignettes into the Kerr household, read here with ease by Marni Webb, suggest that without a heavy dose of humor, any Mom is liable to end up on a psychiatrist's couch at $25 an hour. For example, if you don't remember to tell your child what not to do (usually something completely unimaginable and totally outrageous), there she will be, doing it, having conceived the impossible and actualizing it herself. Recommended for libraries with older audio listeners who want to recall the nostalgic 1950s.AKristin M. Jacobi, Eastern Connecticut State Univ., Willimantic
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This timeless audiobook, originally published in 1957, sounds as fresh as a daisy...These tapes sound like two hours of stand-up comedy. Webb delivers it in a deadpan manner with appropriate pauses for laughter. Her tone conveys the frustration and hilarity of being a young mother trying to survive in a rough environment." -- AudioFile, June/July 1998 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (June 5, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0848805526
• ISBN-13: 978-0848805524
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a laugh riot!, October 3, 2000

By 

"mpercy81" (washington dc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (Hardcover)

well, maybe my title is going a bit too far, but this book has long been one of my favorites. it is not a well known book, despite having had a tv show and movie based on it. i think it is sad, since this collection of stories deserves to be known by all. it is not deep reading, by any means, as the title most assuredly reveals, but it is fun reading, reading that will take your mind off things. the stories in this book are a collection of jean kerr's various magazine articles reflecting on her life, her family, and the always amusing events that surround her. this book may have been written in the fifties, but most of the things she discusses still occur today in everyday life. i recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a lighthearted laugh and a good read. you won't be sorry you took a trip into the garden. (gosh that was a bad pun!)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please do read this book, November 3, 2003

By 

L O'connor (richmond, surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (Hardcover)

An hilarious collection of essays by Jean Kerr , playwright, wife and mother. Very funny and unsentimental accounts of family life, full of wonderfully quotable lines. For instance, when she speaks of looking for a larger house "I wanted a house that would have four bedrooms for the boys, all of them located some distance from the living-room - say in the next country somewhere". Her comments on theatrical life are as funny as her comments on family life, as when she observes that the failure of a play, according to the producer, is always to be blamed on "that first-night audience". She understands children better than any child psychologist, as when she observes that you should never say to children "Are you trying to drive your poor moomy smack out of her mind?" Of course they are, but do you think they'll admit it?" A funny, funny book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How times haven't changed, April 11, 2004

By 

Cynthia Rucker "[e-mail]" (Mount Perry, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (Hardcover)

It's remarkable how undated this book reads: children are still driving their moms crazy, husbands still have jobs that wives have to work around, and women still have to fit their jobs around the rest of the family...Kerr writes about domestic life, work life (although she was self-employed as a writer, she didn't seem to have tons of free hours to devote to her craft-- and most of her plays didn't do that well; she is roughly comparable to an affluent working mom of today, doing many jobs, but none of them especially well). What I love most about this book, in these days of articles on supermoms and the "mommy-wars," is that Kerr doesn't pretend to be Mrs. Perfect, or even Mrs. Tries So Hard. She admits she wants to sleep till noon; and she is a faithful attendee at nearly every play her critic husband must review, because, as she puts it, "I have four young sons, so naturally I need to get out a lot." Funny, relevant, and somewhat neglected among the canon of humor writing--when WILL women be allowed to be funny?