The kids ask their grandparents "Why are you such bald old wrinklies?" The grandparents explain that they weren't always old wrinklies - that they started out as baby wrinklies, and since then they have lead exciting lives on their way to becoming old. This book helps kids realise that old people were young people once too, without being preachy about it .

Drop Dead reveals the life story of 2 grandparents in a comical & humerous way. Using limited text; but wonderfully colourful and detailed illustations, their life story begins their Grandchildren asking why their Granparents are so bald and wrinkly, the Grandparents reveal, with much humour their developments through all of lifes stages. This book teaches ytoung children about life in a very truthful and humerous fashion. It can be enjoyed by all members of the family and is an excellent point for didcussion

Hughes has written a compelling book that explores how family history influences us throughout our lives. In her book she not only tells the particular story of her own family, she evokes a time & place in this country when the sons & daughters of immigrants tried to find their place in America. The book tells a colorful story of a small time crook & dandy - one of the foot soldiers in the Cleveland bootlegging rackets. His violent life & death continues to affect the wife & 2 small children he left behind throughout their lives. Hughes manages to convey a child's sense of bewilderment as she tries to piece together just who this father was & what his legacy to her will be.

The book is also the story of Hughes relationship with her mother, a difficult & complex woman who emotionally victimizes her young daughter throughout her childhood. How she is able to break the bonds that tie her to her mother & learns to live a productive & happy life is the real story of this memoir.

This is an interesting read for anyone who's taken the journey through their own family history. Although it's filled with the pain of a lonely & emotionally abandoned child, the woman Hughes becomes is able to triumph in the end.

This is a book I couldn't put down. Babette Hughes' story is tragic and devastating, yet redemptive and triumphant. The dichotomy of her relationship with her mother is eloquently depicted; I could just hear and feel her saying, "yes, I love her--no, I don't." It must have taken great courage to overcome her fear and then lay it open for all of us to share. It is the kind of life that should make all of our marginally disfunctional lives seem perfect in comparison. I'm recommending this book for my book group and anyone else I know who reads.

In response to Adam B.'s review of the book I would just like to say that Babette Cole is NOT a HE . She is a SHE. And it kind of negates all the points he makes about sexism and gender roles when he automatically assumes the author is a male. A correction may want to be made to the review to he does not look like such an idiot...

This is one of the most charming and funny modern rewrites of a fairy tale IÕve ever read. In this version, the poor over-worked kid with the wicked stepsiblings is a boy, Prince Cinders. Just like Cinderella, he does all the dirty work around the house, while his three big, handsome (well, they think they are anyway) brothers go out dancing and carousing. Also like Cinderella, Cinders has a fairy godmother. Unfortunately, his fairy seems to lack any qualifications for the job, and in trying to turn him into a big, hairy, hypermasculine hunk like his brothers, she messes up and turns him into ape. I wonÕt go into all the details, but after he loses his pants (no glass slipper here), a clever and beautiful princess chooses him over the big, hairy hunks.

The gender switch is clever, and food for thought. But this book works because itÕs just a terrific story with a central character whoÕs a real charmer, and the illustrations are laugh-out-loud funny. My daughter and I both love this book.

Prince Cinders, a children's book written by Babette Cole, is a very charming spoof of "Cinderella." It is the story of a boy, Prince Cinders, who is forced to be a slave for his three older, hairy brothers. The illustrations fit the story perfectly. When the fairy accidentally turns "Prince Cinders" into a big, scary, ape the illustrations showed it. And when he looked into the mirror and thought that he looked like a prince dressed in a tux, the illustrations showed that too. I don't think that I could have ever imagined the absurd things that the story conveys had the author not drawn them this way. The illustrations are delightful and colorful. They made it so that I could really identify with "Prince Cinders." The best thing about this story is that even though the "dirty fairy" got all of the spells wrong, things work out for Prince Cinders in the end. Not only are the brothers punished for what they have done to their brother, but the punishments also fit the crimes.

Babette Cole wrote one terrific book Ð Prince Cinders -- that turns a fairy tale on its head. Princess Smartypants is similar to Prince Cinders, but it isnÕt nearly as good. The idea of a princess who has lots of interests of her own and no desire to sit around waiting for a prince to come along and save her is a good one. But Smartypants is such an annoying character that the whole thing falls apart, I think. In order to discourage her suitors, Smartypants makes up tasks they have to complete before they can claim her hand. The tasks are mean and pointless, and the princess comes across, to me at least, as a spoiled brat. A princess waiting for Prince Charming may be a lousy role model for young girls, but this bratty princess is no improvement. If youÕre looking for an antidote to too many fairy tales, there are lots of better alternatives...

If you worry that exposing your children solely to Disney fairy tales will give them a warped view of the world, read them Princess Smartypants. It's funny, the pictures are fabulous, it's a great story and kids will love it. All the while they will learn a couple of positive messages. You should follow your heart regarding marriage and men who don't respect women should watch out. Princess Smartypants has an excellent life. She spends her days with her animals and is happy. Her only problem is she is plagued by suitors who only want to marry her for her wealth and beauty, but do not appreciate her for who she really is. She gives into pressure from her parents and agrees to hear out her suitors, but cleverly devises a plan to make them all go away. She challenges them to a fitness test which none of them can pass. She is quite happy until the last one comes along and passes all of her tests. He is cocky and overconfident and his tragic flaw is that he didn't think Princess Smartypants was so smart at all. So she kisses him and turns him into a toad. All the other princes run away and she lives happily ever after with her animals. My description may sound heavy, but the story is told with much wit and charm. My four year old loves the story, much more so than the Disney stories. I highly recommend this book for all parents of toddlers. I think it teaches young children that there are alternative routes to happiness, but it never takes itself too seriously.

This is a very funny book (well, it is the first few times you read it). Just love the illustrations which tell so much of the story, especially the chinless wonders who come a-courting.

Princess Smartypants DOES get to live happily ever after in this story, but not in the usual way.

My son loves it. I overheard him telling a friend the other day that "some people don't WANT to get married". That's OK, isn't it?

When I looked at the book on the shelf it looked really cool so I got this book for my project. As i started reading the book it got really interesting and I wanted to read more. When I finished the book,there was some things I liked and disliked. For example,I didn't like the last section in the book because it wasn't very exciting and didn't explain what was happening. Through the whole book the author keeped skipping around and going back to things they already said. But I really liked it in alot of ways. One is,because it was very funny and had alot to do with mystery and some about animals.

But some of the book had the best things and the worst things. The best things was that in the first two chapters they had alot of funny and exciting things to do with animals and people. It also followed a great pattern on where things should be and explained everything really good. The worst thing was the whole last chapter. It was the most stupidthing that I have read. It was suppose to be about a boy who turned into a pigeon and it hardly didn't have anything to do with that until the end of the chapter. It also was really bad because it keeped skipping around and repeating things they already said.

But the author did do a good job on the setting and the characters. She made them sound like you could actually see them or are there where they are. That was the most part that I liked about the whole book. I hope that i can find another book like that when I go back to the library again.

I really liked this book. It has three tales of three people with weird stories. Tom has a boring life and he has to write a report on the most exciting thing that ever happened to him. He switches places with a cat. The cat writes the report and then some weird things happen. The other thing is that Tom wants to change back, but the cat likes being a human. Bebette, is an invisible princess and she has an old lady tell her that. Simon comes from a poor family and goes out. He kills birds to make money. Soon he kills the most important bird of them all and becomes a bird. This a great book for all ages and it has great things that happen to these wacko characters. It is a well written book.

Although in Spanish, the humor of the book comes through clearly for English speakers. The illustrations, also by Babette Cole, are enough to carry the story on most pages. All children have fears, and often they center around animals. This book can allow children to talk about those fears. On the first page, a dog follows Tom and across from that, the picture shows what Tom envisions - the dog as huge and himself in the middle of the dog food bowl. Another page shows a bull butting Tom over the fence into the ocean. On a third page, spiders crawl in his nose! Bats to suck his blood and ants in his pants are more worries for poor Tom. However, when he shouts and ... well, you'll just have to read the surprise way he gets all the animals to be afraid of him. Warning: please preview the last page of the book before reading it to your children. You may not wish to share this picture, though the whole point of the book depends on seeing it.

Remember, the book is totally in Spanish. There is no English translation.

I think this book is very true. Its about a DAD who likes inventing crazy things. And hence this causes trouble. And a rich man in Egypt buys all the inventions for a lot of money and the DAD becomes very RICH. A Very Funny book which reminds of Tim the Toolman from the Home Improvement TV show.

As a child psychologist, I see many of these books (as well as work with children going through the trauma of divorce), and this one is terrible. It is a misguided attempt at helping kids deal with their parents' selfishness. It encourages a fantasy-driven approach, where the parents are both horrible, so fantastically wealthy that the children can live in two mansions (oh right, like THAT's going to happen!), and where the children actually celebrate rather than mourn the destruction of their family. Happily ever after apart? The research data clearly do not support that assertion.

This book is a celebration of selfishness, geared to assuage the guilt of parents by presenting divorce as "amicable" and even desireable. Parents would be far better off to sit down and talk honestly with their children, and not just give them more fairy tales. I recommend that parents read books like Wallerstein's "The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce" BEFORE they decide to dissolve the family, rather than try to patch up their injured children with cheesy books like this afterward.

I give it one star for providing the important message that children are not responsible for their parents' inability to maintain a relationship, and for amusing illustrations.

My three and a half year old has wanted to read this book every day since I bought it. Although Paula and Demetrius's parents aren't the same as my ex and I, reading about other children with "problem parents" seems to have helped my daughter talk about and release some of her feelings about our divorce. She's pointed out how we're different to the Ogglebutts and laughed at them. This book is completely non-judgemental. It tells everything from the children's point of view and shows how they're stuck in the middle and that its *not* their fault. And it's hilarious.

The book is also available in some countries as "Two of Everything".

I wish there were more kids' stories about divorce and children with two homes.

This book is another of Babette Cole's great ones. In it she tells the story of how two children go through the process of their parent's "un-marriage", and come out the other side with everyone still ok and things better than they were before. It would be a gentle way to explain to children that divorce is NOT their fault, but in most cases is just that the parents, who may still love each other, just need to live different lives. The book is spiced up with Cole's usual terrific illustrations, as well as cute text. A must-have for any family contemplating this kind of step, or any Cole fan.

I'm not even going to get into a serious evaluation of this book, for even to do just that would be giving it a degree of credibility - which it certainly lacks. A waste of paper, ink, and effort - but, don't waste your time. If you doubt what I say, just look at Amazons page on this book and look "inside the book." When you zoom in and see and read page 2, you'll know of what I spaeak.

I can't believe the horrible reviews I've seen of this book. Lighten up a little people. I'm a conservative person, but I'm not repressed. This book isn't a good introductory explanation of reproduction; instead it's a silly and cute supplement for a child who already knows the basics. The parents in the book tell their children just about every old wives' tale you've heard about where children come from. The pictures show babies being mixed out of sugar and spice and baked in an oven, babies growing in pots like plants, etc., with very funny illustrations. Then the children turn around and tell their parents how reproduction really takes place. My only problem with the book is that it doesn't use the correct terms for the anatomy and instead uses "seed," "seed pod," and "tube." I would use this more as a humorous supplement than as a basic learning tool.

...BE READY TO DISCUSS IT. I definitly would not leave this book lying around where it could accidentally make its way into a bookbag and onto the school bus.

HOWEVER, I do not think it's as horrible as the other reviewers said. They may be educators, but I'm a parent, and I thought this book was a great gateway to discussion for me and my 6 year old child.

Children see REAL people in more graphic situations on TV commercials or shows before you can change the channel. Surely a cartoon of stick people isn't THAT offensive. (I dont' think kids should be taught about sex at their elementary school anyway. that's my job- I'M THE PARENT.)

If you are ready to really explain what they are reading/seeing then this is a good book for parents of younger kids who want to know more then just "daddy and mommy decided we were ready for a baby".