By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: May 10, 2009
My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life
by Kate Feiffer (Author), Diane Goode (Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (March 24, 2009)
What to expect: Mother and daughter relationships, Father and daughter relationships, Humor
Oh, the humor! My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life essentially defines the quintessential spirit of parent-child relationships. It’s a picture book that even adults will appreciate reading to themselves — giving it to your own mother would certainly be a way to show her that you appreciate her, now, even if you couldn’t show it as a child.
Everyone likes her.
She looks nice.
She bakes great cookies and makes me feel better when I have a bad day.
But
would a really nice mom do embarrassing things like kiss me in public
and tell loud jokes that no one thinks are funny? Well, my mom does
those terrible things and worse – that’s why I am sure that I
have the most embarrassing mom in the world and that my mom is trying
to ruin my life…
Or is she?
Guess what? It turns out that Dad is also trying to ruin his daughter’s life. He makes her do her homework (gasp), and worst (hold your breath) … clean her room — sacrilege. Poor Dad ends up in jail, too. But wait a minute … who will make dinner, who will read a bed-time story? Perhaps parents are pretty favorable after all. I am not going to tell you the ending, but I am going to tell you that Kate Feiffer, with her pitch-perfect writing skills, and Diane Goode, whose artwork corresponds flawlessley, have got this book SO right! I urge you to check-it-out.
