Rating: 
Summary: easy to read
Review: I found this book very easy to read and I could relate to a lot of the articles. I don't know how much use it will be practically speaking but I really enjoyed reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank You, Girlfriend Vicki!
Review: Just when I thought that I just wasn't very good at coping with toddlerhood, I ordered and read this book. Thank you, Vicki and other Girlfriends! Everything going on at my house is normal, normal, normal. As the author puts it, trying to raise a toddler is "like trying to put a collar on a bumblebee."This book is funny, encouraging, helpful -- filled with anecdotes about other moms and other toddlers (some bound to be more frustrating than yours). Good advice. Good support. Fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Lighten Up & Enjoy
Review: As a mom of two tots I found this book to be an over the shoulder review of some of life's challenging, yet amazing moments. Iovine knows what she's talking about, as a mom of four the lady has seen it all. As for the reviewer, who found nothing useful in the book...Come on, loosen up a little. The book is meant to be lighthearted, satiric and silly. Readers definately need to "loosen the bone" when picking up this book. This is not for the Sears or Spock crowd. Sure, those books are wonderful and great...but raising children is not a textbook endeavor. Give yourself a break and look for the funny side of parenting. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Not my Toddler
Review: How do you define toddler? This book doesn't seem to do it. Iovine (author) definition of a toddler is a child that is ready to be potty trained, dress herself, and so forth. My toddler (15 months) is not ready for this yet. But she is considered a toddler. Yes, my toddler took her first steps and yes, we have agony over suppertime, but not how Iovine describes it. She wrote things based on her kids and her friends kids. This book was written for a laugh when you are fed up. I'll stick to Dr. Sears.
Rating:
Summary: Love Vicki Iovine books!
Review: When my daughter Madison hit 2, I thought "Hmmm...she's so easy- why are all these Moms complaining about the 'terrible twos'?" Then I had my son Jack, and with his 2 year birthday came a rude awakening. At 2 1/2, he's done everything from climb on top of the 5 foot dresser to play "Buzz Lightyear" to drawing with crayon all over my poreous limestone fireplace (which requires some kind of acid to remove). That can only mean it's time to consult Vicki Iovine and her "Girlfriend's Guide" series regarding the frustrating toddler years. Before you yank all your hair out (that is, what hasn't fallen out already through sheer stress),Vicki reminds us to "be prepared for your VCR to be 'repaired' several times, for all dresser drawers to be liberated from their tracks, and for your car keys to end up in the sandbox, where they were employed for digging tunnels for your garage door opener to drive through". Vicki doesn't give advice through any book learning or PHd- she's just a 4 time veteran of this stuff, and it makes us Mommies feel a whole lot better that many before us have survived the toddler trenches. Topics such as how to say "NO" and act like you mean it, when to potty train (along with useful tips for success), and whether or not it's time to move to a "big boy/girl bed" , temper tantrums and arguements with someone who possesses a vocab of less than one hundred words are covered in this book. Some women prefer to go the "What to Expect" series route- personally, if I want technical info, I'll call my kids' pediatrcian. I much prefer to rely on the age-old tradition of the Girlfriend Grapevine to help me through the stressful fits of Toddlerhood (I don't think the doctor would be as accomodating!)
Rating:
Summary: Mother of Twin 3 year old boys
Review: At a time when I thought I'd lose my mind, I started reading this book. It gives great advice that is practical and makes sense. It is nice to hear that I'm not the only one going through turmoil in dealing with toddlers! The best part of the book is that it takes the everyday situations that we mothers of toddlers deal with and makes them humorous. I know that many of us could use a laugh!! I read her "Guide to Pregnancy" while I was pregnant and enjoyed that one as well. The author knows how to tell it like it is!
Rating:
Summary: Fun read!
Review: This is a fun, light-hearted, easy read for busy mom's. It is not a developmental guide like other books on the market. It's just a book
that allows you to escape the exhausting job of parenting a toddler
while at the same time providing some useful tips and information.
Rating:
Summary: Vicki Nails It Again!
Review: I keep this book in the bathroom as that is the only time I have to read anything. Iovine's advice is quick and to the point while her descriptions about a certain situation are dead on and hilarious. The down to Earth way she approaches mothering and advice on mothering are a comfort to those of us who want so much to be the BEST mother but fall short because that is life. Ms.Iovine has brought sanity back into our otherwise insane house by reassuring me that I am not in fact the only one whose child has finger painted with the contents of her diaper, insists on wearing her pajamas to school, and has nightmares about Big Bird.
Rating: 
Summary: Biases may alienate readers
Review: This book may alienate moms with a highly involved male
partner - dads get extremely short shrift in it. You may
say that this is to be expected in a book entitled
"Girlfriend's Guide ..." but I have read dads' guides
that manage to speak from a man's perspective without
severely neglecting (or even insulting) women.
The book's "rich" and "white" characteristics may also
distance some readers, particularly at its more
hypocritical. For example, the book says that "Holiday
Sings" are "boringly p.c." and suggests that we should
return to the good old days when they were called
"Christmas pageants, Hannukah shows, or even Kwanza
fests" - as if any American public school in the good
old days actually called them anything other than
Christmas pageants, or even knew what Kwanza was, much less
acknowledged it. That said, much of the book IS very funny, if fairly general.
Just be prepared to stomp down your irritation with
the author's personal biases from time to time, should
these biases not coincide with your own.
Rating:
Summary: A loving and humourous approach
Review: Thank you Vicki! It was so refreshing to read this guide which contains NO clinical "milestone X at age Y" tables but instead provides some practical insights into the mysterious thoughts of our cherisehed small people. I almost cheered to read her asking parents to seriously weigh the cost to the child (and the parent's sanity) of trying to meet public expectations about trifles - whether weaning from bottles, losing the dummy, stopping nose picking, toilet training by 2 or getting your toddler to wear clothes that match. Iovine does actually reveal lots of information on how she or her friends have achieved these things, but I liked her "live and let live" reminder a lot. It matched my philisophy to see someone looking at these issues from the toddler's perspective and encouraging parent's to be more sensitive to their toddler's need to do/not do something and less sensitive to other people's possible rating on their parenting skills. You read her guide and are left feeling pretty certain that by the fourth trip down the toddler taming trail, Iovine has learned which stuff is worth sweating about and which is not. Despite the humourous format, I found a lot of practical information in this book. Her format is to share the (sometimes bitter, sometimes joyful) experiences of her and her Girlfriends and much of the resulting advice is so sensible and appealing e.g. her tips for playdate success are just excellent. I really enjoyed this book, loved the intimate chatty style and got almost teary with heartfelt recognition at her "Top 10 things we'll miss most about toddlers". She may be criticised for being so obviously white and affluent, and will this can influence your feeling of "sameness" with the author, it doesn;t reduce the sense and practicality of the tips offered in the guide. Toddlers who won't give up their binkies, eat vegetables or potty by 2 appear across all social, racial and financial boundaries, and the suggestions for dealing with this do too. Give this book a try for a more intimate and less rigid insight into the joys and trials of toddlers.
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