My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life: Kate Feiffer

TCBR Contributor

15 years ago

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: May 10, 2009

My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life 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?

Mom is illustrated beautifully as a classic American mom from the 1950’s — a real “June Cleaver”. She does everything right, this includes: making boo-boos stop hurting, and helping people fall asleep. But … there are five ways that she is trying to ruin her daughter’s life, including talking too loudly (that’s me). When Mom’s daughter decides to take action, a comedic trail of events unravel, reminiscent of Margaret Wise Brown’s Runaway Bunny (only with a modern take and no bunnies included), the end result … mom in jail! Mom uses her one phone call to contact Dad.

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.