Rating: 
Summary: Katie Caines Review
Review: 4c`s science project is on Flour Babies.The pupils have to look after a Flour Babie for 4 weeks and soon Simon Martin takes a liking to his baby.However the main thing on his mind is the Glourious Expiosion at the end of the project.Simon Martin gets all serious about looking after his Flour Baby taking it everywhere and everyone thinks he is mad.They are only looking after their Flour Babies waiting for the time to come for the Glourious Explosion. My favourite part was the ending because Simon Martin did not listen to anyone and just had the most exciting Explosion on his own in the middle of the hall. i really enjoyed this book but i have read better
Rating:
Summary: Katie Caines Review
Review: 4c`s science project is on Flour Babies.The pupils have to look after a Flour Babie for 4 weeks and soon Simon Martin takes a liking to his baby.However the main thing on his mind is the Glourious Expiosion at the end of the project. Simon Martin gets all serious about looking after his Flour Baby taking it everywhere and everyone thinks he is mad.They are only looking after their Flour Babies waiting for the time to come for the Glourious Explosion. My favourite part was the ending because Simon Martin did not listen to anyone and just had the most exciting Explosion on his own in the middle of the hall. i really enjoyed this book but i have read better
Rating: 
Summary: Witty realism
Review: Anne Fine deals with an important issue which affects many children today - that of one parent families with wit, sensitivity and realism. Simon isn't magically transformed into a model pupil but then we wouldn't want him to be. The characters have depth and are characters that are easy to identify with. Anne Fine never gets over sentimental when Simon is reflecting on the fact that his father left him when he was six months old but nether does she gloss over Simon's feelings. A very funny, readable book.
Rating: 
Summary: Anne is Fine yet Again
Review: Anne Fine is a truly wonderful and unique author,perhaps the best in the world;that's what I reckon!This book is about Simon,a tough,troubled troublemaker who-along with the rest of his naughty-kids class-is given a project to take care of a sack of flour as though it is a baby.
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Summary: Take one fatherless boy. Add one sack of flour. Stir.
Review: Books concerning teenage fatherhood have blossomed over the last few years. I'm not certain what the cause of this trend is, and I don't know where it will end. Certainly some fabulous books have resulted, of course. The multi-award winning, "First Part Last", is probably the best known of these adolescent daddy stories. Lesser known, and far cheerier, is the delightful "Flour Babies" by Anne Fine. Taking a concept that has been used in everything from an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to an episode of "The Cosby Show", this story concentrates on a boy, his adorable sack of flour, and his attempts to come to terms with his own absentee pop.
When Mr. Cassidy gets stuck with the worst possible students in Room 8 he isn't surprised. When he is stuck giving these same students a lame project for the upcoming Science Fair he remains unsurprised. But when the project turns out to concern Flour Babies, he's livid. In this project the teacher must hand a six-pound burlap sack of flour to each of his students. Over the course of several weeks these lagabout kids must take extra special care of their new babies. Of course, Cassidy is convinced that this project will only lead to flour exploding in his classroom at the hands of his rowdy kids. When the biggest toughest underachiever of them all, Simon Martin, misunderstands and thinks that the end of the project will result in a grand flour baby kick-off, he throws himself headlong into his baby's care. As time goes by, Simon begins to care deeply for his baby and his thoughts turn to the father that abandoned him when he was a babe. Through his own slow thought processes, Simon learns to understand what fatherhood entails and what it truly means to be unencumbered and young.
This book was originally published in Britain and as such I initially assumed that it took place overseas. But about the time Simon's mom comments that his deadbeat dad took off for Chicago when he left, I came to the horrific realization that this book was trying to be American. Trying and failing. I mean, honestly. This is the kind of book that contains sentences like, "his dad was a duffer" and has characters that say "Sir" all the time and have names like "Simon". Also, the book kind of decomposes towards the end. While the storyline up until the last 2 or so chapters has been fine, suddenly Anne Fine tacks on a Mel Brooks type of let's-make-everything-crazy finale. You've got a previously sympathetic teacher giving a ridiculous (and increasing) number of detentions, a crazy escape via running along the tops of the school's desks, and a grand finish of thick floating flour everywhere. I only wish the writing could have kept up, but it didn't.
Which isn't to say there isn't a lot going for this book. Admittedly, the students keep breaking into bizarre non-teenage sentences from time to time but they're enjoyable characters. For his part, Simon is a kind of relief to read. I was convinced that this book would turn out to be another tale in which a wise but crazy teacher gives his tough students a true challenge and at the end they all beat the science nerds because someone actually took the time to believe in them. Not a chance. Simon Martin is a good example of that. He's unrepentantly thick at the beginning of the book and though he's worked out some issues by the end, he's unrepentantly thick there too. And finally, the biggest and best reason to read this book; it's darned funny. I think I was officially won over when the teacher watching the detention students found herself hoping that Simon would entertain her that day with the Bloodied Tongue. This is where Simon empties surreptitiously an entire cartridge of red ink from a pen onto his tongue and then, "let this gory-looking monstrosity out of his mouth for the whole rest of the detention, rendering her incapable of eating her sandwich but amusing her mightily". Any book that uses humor correctly has my love already.
"Flour Babies" apparently won the British Carnegie Medal (which corresponds to our Newbery Medal over here stateside) which surprises me a little. I think it's great but I wouldn't necessarily cover it with awards. Still, if you're looking for a fun read that's not only amusing but also great to pick up and reread, I think this book's for you. Three cheers for those little sack o' flours and the boys that love 'em so.
Rating:
Summary: Flour Babies
Review: Flour babies by Anne Fine, winner of two prestigious British book awards, is a funny yet deadly serious story of a class of boys which by false persuasion take on looking after a 6 pound bag of flour, as if a real baby, for 3 weeks.
The book is based around Simon Martin, part of 4c, who 15 years before was walked out on by his Father. This year's science fair was being planned, as always, by Dr Feltham, who thinks that everything should be perfect and correct. After giving 4c a choice of boring subjects, flour babies was picked to the class's dismay. This is until Simon overhears a conversation between Mr Cartwright, teacher of 4c, and Dr Feltham talking about the project and mentioning a glorious explosion of flour and so persuades the whole class that it was a good choice and it would be the best science fair yet.
When looking after the flour babies Simon discovers the truth about his dad, his feeling towards babies and who really cares about him, along with whom he truly cares about and how little he's done for them before.
Although I didn't like the whole idea of it I thought it was pretty good, the humour breaking up the serious stuff and making it a lot more realistic for a class at secondary school. Also the length of the book was just about right to keep you waiting but not for too long, with funny mini stories along the way. One of these involved one of my favourite characters, Sajid Mahmoud, who opened up a crèche for people to have their bags of flour looked after-at a price of course-because business is business where money and Sajid are involved.
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Summary: A great book on why not to become a young parent.
Review: FLOUR BABIES was a great book. I enjoyed reading it because it kept you wondering would happen next. The part I liked the best was how Simon kept finding out piece by piece of the song his father was singing when he left Simon and his mother. I also liked how you never knew what the kids doing the flour baby project would do with their flour babies next. In this book the author used great characterization. In my opinion, books with lots of characters in them are more exciting to read. Plus, when each character has a different point of view of things that is very interesting. For example the students doing the flour baby project all have different opinions about the flour babies. Most think that it is a horrible idea, and Simon thinks it is a great idea. Then there are the people who just don't know what to think. The last thing that I really liked was the whole point of the book. I learned so much on how hard it would be to be a parent when you are still in school. For example, when he has to go to soccer practice and his mom won't watch his flour baby for him. As you can see, this book has many good points. I really recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read this book does do this. I really enjoyed this book, and I hope everyone else will too!
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Summary: Flour babies innit!
Review: flour babies was good, but not my cup of tea really. Its set in a boys secondary school and in a classroom of bottom set boys, the teacher treats them with no respect at all, and the boys just mess around. Well anyway they've been set a science experiment to look after babies of flour, the boys think that is so girly-ish but simon (the rude boy of the class) takes this seriously and actually looks after the baby seriously and everyone is surprised. But all this baby stuff is making him wandering why did his dad leave when he was a baby( oh yeah simons dad left when he was a baby) So simon keeps on questioning his mum about why his dad left , his mum says he was whistling a song at the time , his mum does'nt know what song , but simon finds out the song but not the last line. Will simon find out the last line? Will he ever know why his dad left? read it to see!!
Rating:
Summary: Confusing characterization?
Review: I enjoyed the humor in the story, shown mostly through offhand remarks made by Simon Martin's long-suffering teacher. Simon and his classmates are the students everyone has given up for lost. The principal decides they aren't to be trusted with the materials found in the science lab, and assigns them the "safe" science fair project of taking care of a five pound flour baby for three weeks. While this sets the book up to either be hilarious or insightful, it never really pulls of either. There is so little background given on Simon Martin that his miraculous conversion from the local punk into a caring, fatherly person, seems contrived. Definitely the most realistic person in the story is Simon's teacher, who combines cutting sarcasm with a genuine (usually concealed) concern for his students. The story is almost rescued in the end, so it is worth it to keep reading!
Rating:
Summary: Cool; I Love The Idea of Flour Babies
Review: I gave it a 8.5 because it was good but hard to understand.
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