Bad Habits!

Rating:
Summary: This One Is Over The Top
Review: I have just recently read through this book and as an early childhood educator I find this book inappropriate to say the least. I know the importance of having books that children can relate to and to have books that teach them how to handle things correctly but, showing a little girl passing gas and monsters shaped like buttocks...I think not. I would love to know if this author has ever sat down in an early childhood classroom and tried reading this book to young children??? Children emulate what they see and hear. Can't we give them something a little more concrete to go on then a father who make his little girl smell her own gas???

Rating:
Summary: Learn to laugh a little
Review: Ms. Lucretzia Crum has a veritable potpourri of bad habits, including (but no doubt not limited to) burping, farting, spitting, yelling & screaming. Of course, because she can get away with all of these bad habits, she is the envy of her classmates to do their best to emulate her (one page shows Ms. Crum at school where, among other things, a well dressed boy is releasing a large cloud from his nether end-complete with the word "poop!"-and a frustrated, thoughtful teacher with green apple bouncing off her head).

Her father is, of course, a mad scientist who invents fantastically rediculous inventions to keep her under control, like the "burp-bung" (a plunger-like invention placed over the mouth), the "thief-proof pullover" (sweater with long sleeves tied to bricks), and the "Blowfart Inhaler Suit" (consisting of a rather overinflated astronaut suit complete with hose attaching the hind end of the suit to the fishbowl helmet).

The illustrations are amusingly preposterous and have a frenetic feel to them, which suits a main character that destroys everything in her path. When Ms. Crum's birthday party rolls around and some REAL monsters enter, a whole LOT of destruction takes place!! Enough to scare Lucretzia right into being good! Especially when it is revealed that these monsters used to be children who ran amok just like you-know-who...

As an educator, I can see how Bad Habits! would thrill some children to the marrow-especially those who have a taste for bathroom humor. While I can see the slapstick of the Blowfart Inhaler Suit, I have to report that the book is too over-the-top for my professional and personal life (the pink monster with the giant buttocks instead of a head who is constantly "blowing off steam" as it were is, for me, a bit more than I'd like to expose my own child to).

Is it a GOOD book?? Yes, and most children 4-8 would enjoy it. However, my fear is that they would begin to EMULATE it as well. Also, I have some difficulty with the subtext: how did Ms. Crum get to be so OLD without any discipline?? And is the correct response to excessive intestinal gas a plunger or a "fartsuit"?? Amusing, perhaps, but not the sort of book I would recommend without some serious forethought.

Rating:
Summary: Learn to laugh a little
Review: We adults sometimes put way to much thought into what is a simple, funny book for a child. Kids need humor sometimes to see what is wrong with certain behaivors and the goal is to have them want to read anyway! If it is funny and entertaining they will. A sanitized version of lessons in behaivor is not only boring but it is also lost on the young learner. I say buy it and have a good laugh with your kids!

Rating:
Summary: Fun Wacky Manner Book
Review: We ordered this one and found it to be funny and entertaining ! The Dad's inventions were a hoot! We have well mannered children, and they delighted in Lucretzia Crum becoming an ANGEL and giggled about her bad behavior, knowing right from wrong is one thing. Having light hearted fun is another. Any of Babettes Coles Books can be a fun entertaining experience. Lighten up.... It is a fun Read!