Customer Reviews

When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir of Her Youth

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a wonderful idea! It's a celebration of kid-hood (vs baby-dom), about a girl who looks back on her childhood from the grand old age of four and a half years and marvels at all the things she can do now. Like braid her hair, go to school, eat pizza and paint your toes (bubblegum) pink.

It's infectious and a real treat! Great to give to an older child who may be feeling a bit left out now that a new baby has invaded the household.

The pictures are great fun. If you have to read the book 20 or 30 times, it helps to have something new peek at you out of those rich pictures every once in a while. And I love the story too. This book is about being a big kid, versus a being a baby. Too many new sibling books make the new baby the subject. I think most new big siblings have had just about enough of those darn babies. And it's funny. My daughter and I disagree about what's really happening in the picture that goes with the part about time-outs, but we both think it's funny.

I have to agree with some other reviewers. I just had a really hard time getting past no car seat (and riding up front!) for a 4 year old. What an awful example! I also took real issue with the idea that Cheetos and Captain Crunch are things 4 year olds should be eating.

As adorable as the illustrations and part of the text are, any book where I have to change a good portion of the words when reading aloud is a big NO to me.

We just love this book! We read it over and over again, always finding something new. My two yr old loves the part about "painting toenails bubblegum pink." I think for all babies making that transistion from baby to toddler, to big sister or big brother, this is a terrific book. Superbly illustrated and well written, the author really gets to the toddlers level in her desciptions. My toddler really relates!

The first thing my husband said after reading the book to our daughter is, "Where is the dad?" or even the grandfather for that matter. There are references to mommy and grandma. I don't know the history of Jamie Lee Curtis. Perhaps she didn't have a father figure present growing up, which certainly would explain why there are no memories to explore.

In regards to the editorial review that they "slip in implicit endorsements of specific cereals and junk foods (Cap'n Crunch, Chee-tos, Animal Crackers)", this didn't bother me. I would guess that most people have a specific image or memory in their head about when they ate Cheetos, Fritos, Cheerios, oreo cookies, or whatever. It's the beauty of our memory of being 4-1/2 years old.

The watercolor illustrations are beautiful. There is so much detail that they tell a story themselves. (And at least pictures exist of male role models).

As for the book overall, my daughter loves it, and that's what is most important.

This is the first year that I am teaching first grade. I read this book to my class then asked them to draw a picture of what he or she remembered from when they were little. Every child had an idea! As the students were drawing pictures I asked them about their memory and wrote a sentence or two for them to copy (this was only the third week of first grade). The parents will love to see these at conferences! A Fun book and a great writing prompt!

I thought it would be more like I Feel Silly which it is not. Very babyish - one line sentences. I think the illustrations are not as clear as other books and looks like a mish-mash of colors. My just 5 year old is not interested in it.

I really like the book, EXCEPT the page that reads "when I was little I rode in a baby car seat. Now I ride like a grown-up..." Most state require by law that a child ride in child-seat until they are 4 or older....our state requires it until a child is 6 years old. No 4 year old should ride in a car "like a grown up". I have to change the words when we get to that part.

This book tells about a four-year-old who reflects on her childhood and tells how silly she thought she was. The illustrations are great, they really give you a good picture about what you are reading, without them you wouldn't understand the story as well.

The combination of delightful illustrations and simple words evoking the mind of a child make this book, like all of Curtis' creations, a pleasure to read to youngsters and to get fun reactions about what and who they think they were as babies. I'm glad that a granny got a place in the book too, catching the little grandchild at the bottom of a long slide. That's me today. I like how Curtis weaved in the importance of reading to children at night, and I vote for her book to be one of the choices. Her love as a mother and understanding of children shine through the pages.

Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?