My mom is trying to ruin my life

Kate Feiffer

Book - 2009

A young girl describes all the ways in which her mother and father conspire to ruin her life.

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Location Call Number   Status
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Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers c2009.
Language
English
Main Author
Kate Feiffer (-)
Other Authors
Diane Goode (illustrator)
Edition
1st ed
Item Description
"A Paula Wiseman book."
Physical Description
unpaged : col. ill. ; 29 cm
ISBN
9781416941002
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Feiffer and Goode, the team behind President Pennybaker (2008), have created another fable about independence. With all the pretween angst she can muster, our heroine wonders, If my mom is such a nice mom, why is she trying to ruin my life? She talks too loud, brings shorts for her to change into at school, and kisses her face in public! She gets no relief from her father either, who wants her to do homework and go to bed on time. So the girl devises a plan to run away and have her parents thrown in jail. While the text is skewed to the little girl's perspective, Goode's trademark retro illustrations capture the good intentions of Mom and Dad, and the hurt and loss they feel when separated from their daughter. Young readers will enjoy the fantasy of freedom and want to read this without help from their own embarrassing parents. In the end, they will come to the conclusion that even though their parents might be trying to ruin their lives, that's all a part of being loved.--Jones, Courtney Copyright 2009 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

What if Mom and Dad were finally jailed for their crimes against their school-age daughter's humanity (e.g., talking too loudly and enforcing a regular bedtime)? How perfect would that be? The sweetness of our narrator's vision fades, however, when she realizes there would be no one around to love her and take care of her. Feiffer and Goode (previously paired for President Pennybaker) give this old chestnut of a story line an urbane sheen. The author understands that children like to assume a voice of objective authority by referring to themselves in the third-person plural ("[My mom] makes people's boo-boos stop hurting"). And while it seems a bit anachronistic that Goode dresses Mom in a pink shirtwaist worthy of Father Knows Best, her watercolor vignettes are gems of wry intelligence and comic understatement. Ages 4-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 2-After stating that her mother "looks like a nice mom" who takes people where they need to go and makes boo-boos stop hurting, Emma goes on to list the ways her parents are trying to ruin her life. She imagines them both thrown in jail for their crimes of kissing her in front of her friends, worrying too much, and making her clean her room and do her homework. But thinking about a parent-free life only serves to remind her how much she really does need her mom and dad, and in the end she says, "I love you!" Done in bright pinks and greens, the expressive cartoon illustrations bring a lot of personality and humor to the plot, but frustrated kids and their struggling parents will find this saccharine story a bit too naive.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review

A girl explains how her parents are "trying to ruin" her life ("She kisses me in front of my friends," "He makes me do my homework"). Her revenge fantasy--Mom and Dad in jail--compels her to reevaluate her attitude. This amusing story, helped along by the cartoony watercolors' scope of emotionality, manages to be respectful of both parental authority and pre-tween angst. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.