How to Raise Mom and Dad

With some helpful advice from his older sister, a young boy learns the perfect techniques needed to handle his parents in order to get just what he wants, including having his homework done for him and picking a new puppy, in this amusing tale about a duo of plotting siblings and the parents who love them.

Kindergarten-Grade 2—A girl offers her younger brother some advice for dealing with Mom and Dad. "They mean well, but sometimes they need a hand." All the admonitions ever spouted by parents are turned around and used in some way on the training of the adults. When waking them parents up, Big Sister advises, "But don't go to them—it's much nicer to shout really loud from your room until they get up and come to you, because exercise is healthy for grown-ups…." Little Brother is taught how to get the food he wants, the method of asking his parents for important things (a puppy), how to get them to do the kids' homework, the way to turn dinnertime attention away from green vegetables, and the tricks of elongating the bedtime routine until the adults are tired out. The gouache illustrations are as joyful as the text. The people all have large round heads with exaggerated eyes. Pictures are of varying sizes and shapes and occasional word balloons extend the artwork. This is a manual every child will want to read.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI
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Grown-ups need lots of green vegetables, especially spinach, so if you eat less, there will be more for them. In this irreverent picture book, an older sister shows a preschool boy how to help her manipulate their parents. Exercise is healthy for grown-ups, the sister says, so when you need to talk with Mom and Dad, shout really loudly from your room and ask them to come to you; don’t go to them. The girl says that her advice is all for Mom and Dad’s own good, of course, although she also demonstrates how to nag for a puppy (“Ask for things . . . ask for things . . . ask for things again”), and how to interpret the meaning of “no” and “we’ll see.” Some of the humorous scenarios may appeal more to parents, who will recognize their own child-raising challenges. But the colorful cartoon pictures of the big-eyed family will draw kids, as will the story’s exploration of sly power games that undermine authority and put the young ones in charge. Grades K-3. --Hazel Rochman