When "That Pesky Rat" (who has no name) wants to become someone's pet, he starts his search by asking his friends about their lives with their owners. After listening to their advice he contacts the local pet store proprietor about finding an owner of his own. She tells him no one would want a rat for a pet, but this feisty fellow doesn't give up. He makes his own advertisement and waits until a special someone comes along.

That poor pesky rat. There he is living in trashcan number 3, Grubby Alley. He's all alone in the world wishing he was a real pet, with an owner, and creature comforts, and a name. His friend Pierre, the chinchilla, has a glamorous life eating chocolates, and Nibbles, the lop-eared rabbit, has an exciting life working in a circus. Even Andrew, the scottie dog, has a nice, quiet life with Miss St. Claire. She makes him wear a coat and hat when they go out, and that's embarrassing, but as that pesky rat tells us: "I would do almost anything to be somebody's pet." So he decides to take matters into his own little paws, and write an advertisement for the pet store window. He waits and waits and waits, and then one day old Mr Fortesque, with the very bad eyesight, stops by and reads..... Award winning author and illustrator, Lauren Child, has written a charming and humorous story that will have kids rooting and cheering for this unlikely and endearing want-to-be pet. Her engaging and witty text wraps itself creatively around her cleverly exuberant collage artwork, and children will enjoy all the colors, textures, and eye-catching details as they explore each playful illustration. With a satisfying, feel good ending, That Pesky Rat is perfect for youngsters 4-8, and a wonderful additional to all home libraries.

I have never loved a rat more than this little pesky rat. He is sweet, brave, thoughtful, enterprising and wants only to be loved. My daughter and I spent a lot of time looking at this book at the book store and now we are actually buying it, so that we can give him a home, even though my children are past the age of picture books. We are also buying it because the illustrations are witty and interesting; being both straightforward and (using beautifully patterned photo collages) complex. The story is great fun. This rat is as appealing as a rat can be. As a mother of three kids who I've read many books to I am certain that this book is well worth owning. Your children will enjoy hearing this book over and over and you'll enjoy reading it every time.

This book helped me to discover, while my daughter was still an infant, that she is a mover type of learner. According to the author, this type of learner tends to be the least successful in school. However, this book taught me how to build on my child's innate style to develop her other capabilities as "looker" and "listener". Now, at almost 5 years of age, my daughter has a more balanced learning style and is doing wonderfully in preschool. Even though not all of the games, toys, and other resources recommended in the book are available where I live, the concepts are clear enough so that I am able to apply them with the things that are within my reach. This would make an excellent gift to new parents.

What a wonderful book this is! Dr. Lauren Bradway and Barbara Albers Hill do an excellent job of describing what "Looker", "Listener", and "Mover" children are. They also show parents how they can help their children become a more "balanced learner"!

I enjoyed reading the examples of each child's learning style, and was appreciative for the many informative checklists spread throughout the book. Parents can discover what kind of learning style their child has, and put to use the many wonderful suggestions provided throughout the book. These ideas will show parents how they can help their children develop their own style of learning.

My ParenTime recommends "How to Maximize Your Child's Learning Ability" -- it's informative, easy-to-read, and full of creative suggestions that parents can immediately put to use in their own families!

The general message of the book is great. Different emotions that can occur when dealing with different people are expressed. The text then talks about how we feel about our own emotions and then how we have the choice as to how to react to our emotions and then how we then communicate back to the people who have done us wrong. The text is great, the messages are wonderful, and there is a lot to talk about, such as "I am in charge of my words and actions...they belong to me". What is mentioned is in general, getting along, feeling good when things go well, fighting, arguing, yelling, hitting, crying, taking turns, sharing, solving problems, and treating others well. More themes covered are name calling, physically hurting others, bullying, how friends should act with one another, and despite physical appearance differences, we are all the same inside with the same emotions and are deserving of respect from one another.

The thing I don't like about this book is that it is written in the first-person narrative but the book does not have a main character so it doesn't quite make sense when being read aloud. The sentences have statements such as "I don't like mean words" and "But I can choose not to do that". There is no main character in the book, either mentioned in text or in illustration. Every page has different illustrations of all different children. The text makes more sense if the child is reading it to themselves. This really irks me! The storyline just doesn't make sense to me without using a main character of some kind or at least referencing them by having a main character on every page's illustration to show whom the author is talking about.

I also like how the illustrations have one theme per page. Every child's favorite subject is sure to be covered on one of the pages: dinosaurs, trains, princesses, firefighters, etc.

Lastly, my favorite thing about this book is that it is written intelligently with respect that young children have control over their actions and intentions and can choose to act responsibly. I salute the author for acknowledging that young children are capable individuals who can make good choices independently.

I used this book with my 1st graders. The ideas are complex enough that I could only talk about a few pages a day. However, it helped my students and me find a common language to explain appropriate behavior. Thank you.

I saw this book and didn't think anything of it, then I checked it out at the library and discovered that my daughter loved it (4 years old) and it brought up many discussions about herself and others. We love reading it together! I had to buy it because she kept wanting to check it out again, and again.

As a local family support council member, I was interested in what was happening across the nation in regards to family support. Items such as states that had passed legislation with or without funding attached, copies of surveys used to gather information regarding family support status provided some good insight. Thanks for writing this book.

Bloom's study helps those seriously interested in understanding the differences between different kinds of talent and it can be nurtured. The study describes how the nurturance of gifted athletes and musicians takes a different path than that of intellectually gifted young people. It points out that the families do not choose between the intellectual and athletic areas but follow the talents manifested by their children.

Apparently world-class talent becomes evident in the early years of performance and spurs on the efforts of family and youngster. In the cases of musical and physical talent, in this study it is concert pianists and Olympic swimmers, children show an intitial interest for practice and competition but go through a period of resistance before they make the talent area truly their own. Such youngsters do not succeed without the time and financial support of their families. Much, including regular schooling, needs to be sacrificed. The study concludes that eminent sculptors have a much less clearly defined or supported pathways to prominance.

Although the nurturance and support systems are similar for world-class athletes and musicians, the actual family environments differ considerably. The musicians experience a family environment more like that of the mathematicians and scientists in their youth.

Intellectual talent like that found in expert mathematicians and scientists also requires facilitation by the family. A particular point of interest is the generally overall high intelligence of these young people, and an unusually high degree of family cohesiveness. Few eminent mathematicians or scientists come from families of divorce.

Finally, the types of personalities vary by talent area and the book gives excellent case study examples.

I would give the book 5 stars if it gave more specific information on intellectual make-up of the study subjects or the groups under study.

This is a book I wanted to like. I enjoyed Ms. Slater's "Prozac Diary" (although, interestingly, she never seemed to be suffering from what you might term "major depression"--whininess and an overinflated sense of self-importance was more like it) and "Lying," while another exercise in self-indulgence, at least had wit, good writing and a certain honesty that redeemed it.

Not so with this book, which is, to put it mildly, awful. It seems to be in vogue for women writers to pen memoirs about motherhood as a kind of self-improvement program--as in, "Yes, I was wonderful before, but motherhood has made me go such deeper and now I'm an even better writer and I Have It All." I'd expected better of Ms. Slater, but this book fits neatly into the trend, along with Naomi Wolf's Misconceptions, Martha Beck's Expecting Adam, Suzanne Finnamore's Zygote Chronicles, and more (I'm sure Elizabeth Wurtzel will be weighing in soon.) Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, these ladies are all multi-degreed and Ivy League--I suppose that makes their issues much more important than those of the lumpen proletariat.

Slater's book doesn't crack much new ground. Like the writers mentioned above, she's over-educated, a psychologist ("with over a hundred publications!") seeing herself occupying lofty heights as one of the intellectual elite. When she finds herself pregnant (her opening--a paragraph-long description of her urine--is priceless) she worries a lot about whether or not she'll be able to keep writing, presumably self-indulgent tomes like this one. Her husband tells her that she can "be the aunt"--in other words, he'll take all the responsibility for raising the baby, along with live-in help. Oh, how awful--a Mr. Mom and a full-time nanny. However will she keep writing? Her apparent "mental illness"--which seems to be little more than garden-variety dysthymia and very poor coping skills--is not examined in much depth, nor is her relationship to the long-suffering husband, who has to put up with her pronouncements such as "I hope you want this baby, because I sure don't." I also felt terrible for her live-in nanny, described as fat and pimply and whose major crime in life seems to have been not having wealthy parents to send her to Harvard.

Much of the book revolves around her agonizing decision as to whether or not to keep taking Prozac and her raft of additional "meds," but again, it's not made clear why a woman in a comfortable marriage, with a seemingly good career--as a psychologist, for heaven's sake!--is in such dire need of drugs that are usually prescribed in such massive quantities only to hospital inpatients. The ending is neatly tied up with her telling her sister, "I feel like a mother"--yet she seems to have had no transforming experiences that warrant this conclusion. Her self-absorption, already boundless, seems to have only added the ego-gratifying, "And I'm a mommy!"

Suffice it to say that I found this book almost offensive, and a huge disappointment from a once-talented writer. I won't be rushing to buy her next exercise in self-aggrandizement.

I've enjoyed other works of Lauren Slater, and this was no exception. It takes courage to write about the experiences she's had emotionally. Especially when it involves being heartfelt and honest about the giant step of having a baby.

Anyone who is pregnant or plans to become pregnant should read this book regardless of whether or not you have a history with depression or other mental illnesses. Many of the feelings and emotions Ms. Slater expresses about having a baby are ones that many women have, but are not honest enough to express. Reading about her experiences and emotions authenticates just how serious a choice having a baby is, not just for someone with mental illness, but for every responsible couple.

This is a good, informative and honest piece of writing. I would recommend it highly to anyone who wants an emotional look at what it's like to be pregnant. Ms. Slater is an excellent writer in both her use of imagery and emotion.

Lauren Slater is a highly gifted writer--her writing is eloquent, descriptive, and fluid. So this book is a pleasure to read just to experience her giftedness with language. She has a sense of humor and frankly and acknowledges a complicated constellation of emotions around her pregnancy and subsequent childbirth, (including ambivalence, anxiety, guilt) and the process of the unfolding attachment and love she comes to feel for her baby. The lengthy, difficult labor may be hard for some moms-to-be to read about, but again I appreciated its frankness--so many moms say they forget the difficulties of labor. This memoir is valuable for the many first-time moms, over-30 moms, those with "high risk" pregnancies, and those for whom depression is a concern and complicated medication decisions during pregnancy are a reality.

This book is perhaps the worst teenage manual I have ever seen. The advice is at times completely biased and untruthful (assuming, for example, that girls who are fat must be selfish) to destructive and sexist (if your teenage girl jumps up from her seat, have her repeat the behavior and stand up more gracefully). The entire tone of the book is almost condescending towards young women, as if the author is at best bemused by them. I have a Master's in Social Work, twelve years experience working with young people, and volunteer experience in several national youth agencies, and I am raising a teenage girl. Of all the books on kids I have ever read (And I've read literally hundreds) this is the only one I actually threw out.

While I applaud all attempts to provide supportive advice to our young people as they navigate the path of adolesence, I have a hard time supporting authors who copy the writings and titles of a fantastic book TSM that came out on this subject in the late seventies. Get your own material!

I heartily recommend this book to any parent of a teenage girl. Dr. Ayers knows exactly what she is talking about. The teenage years are so crazy anyway that it is hard for a parent to know what is normal and what is not. This book explains how teenage girls think, which behaviors are normal and which indicate a problem. It provides practical and specific advice on effective parenting, problem-solving and dealing with crises and emergencies.