My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life

by Kate Feiffer, Diane Goode (Illustrator)

Overview

Everyone has only nice things to say about my mom.

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?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439158432
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	03/24/2009
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	NC590L (what's this?)
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Kate Feiffer is a writer, a filmmaker, and a mother. She is the author of the picture books No Go Sleep!; President Pennybaker; But I Wanted a Baby Brother!; The Wild, Wild Inside; Which Puppy?; My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life; and Double Pink; and of the middle-grade novels Signed by Zelda and The Problem with the Puddles. She lives with her family on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Visit her at KateFeiffer.com.

Diane Goode has written seven and illustrated over sixty beloved and critically acclaimed picture books, including the New York Times bestsellers Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts. She illustrated several books by Cynthia Rylant including When I Was Young in the Mountains, a Caldecott Honor Book. She is also the illustrator of President Pennybaker and My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life, both by Kate Feiffer. She lives in Watchung, New Jersey, with her husband, David, and their dog, Briggs. You can read about her at DianeGoode.com.

Editorial Reviews

A young girl recites a litany of offenses inflicted by her parents. Giving kisses goodbye in front of friends, a loud voice and excessive worrying are all evidence of reckless mothering. With sly humor, Feiffer details the child's elaborate-yet-doomed plans for escape. A final, desperate appeal to the authorities results in her hapless mother's incarceration. Dad, too, must pay his dues for such transgressions as enforcing a set bedtime, requiring a clean bedroom and the like. With glee, the child ponders a future free of parental interference. However, the veracity of the caveat "be careful what you wish for" soon becomes evident as the child envisions life on her own: "if...I have a bad dream because I went to bed hungry and without any stories and nothing to drink, there will be no one there to hug me and say, ‘It's just a dream.' " Goode's watercolor illustrations adeptly convey the wry tone of the tale, her orange-ponytailed little girl displaying a unibrow scowl as she contemplates her mother's sins. A comical rebuttal to a familiar childhood lament. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews