Dr. Laura has nothing educational, wise, funny, original or beautiful to say to children. This book, with its tantrum-throwing, greedy child, its preachy, obviously wealthy mom, and its awful artwork is a waste of paper, shelf space and kids' time. It's quite depressing to walk into a bookstore and see "books" such as these crowding out beautiful new or classic picture books. Unfortunately, it's the kids who really suffer when offerings such as this "book" are what's available to them. Isn't Dr. Laura rich enough already, without trying to cash in on the kids' book world?

I bought this book when my children were younger hoping they would learn that having fits do not work. Instead the child in this book has a fit and is rewarded when his mom gives in and buys ALL the stuffed animals he wants. The message about giving to those less fortunate is totally overshadowed by the fact the mom bought hundreds of dollars worth of stuffed animals to begin with! Is this a reality for any of us???

I think that a lot of people are missing the point of this story. The POINT is that yes he does throw a fit and get all the stuffed animals. HOWEVER he finds that they don't make him as happy as the cat that he has and that MANY THINGS DO NOT BRING HAPPINESS! Sammy (the son) should have listened to mom in the beginning and not thrown a fit. In the end throwing the fit and getting what he wanted (or what he thought he wanted), just made him more miserable.

This book is not for children. If anything, it would increase their feelings of isolation and nurture their insecurities about their place in the family. It's not surprising that Ms. Schlessinger would write something like this. In fact, it seems to mirror her own life as documented in Vicky Bane's very well done bio, "Dr. Laura: The Unauthorized Biography". In short, "Growing Up Is Hard" does a far better job of telling us about Shlessinger's tormented psyche than it does imparting moral values to children. If you're looking for a child's book, pass this one up and consider something that's really for children. I'd suggest "Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type".

Laura Schlessinger's awkward text and Dan McFeely's ugly illustrations make a book neither kids nor adults will find appealing. Children won't relate to language no kid would ever use ("I hate my life!") or to the humorless, patronizing moral lesson. The best children's books are lovingly written by people who like and understand kids and want to entertain them. This object isn't really a book at all: it's another "Dr. Laura" promotional product. Reviewer "zeh" is right: you can do better.

The text is preachy and boring and would make any little kid squirm to be doing ANYTHING else except listen to this book. The illustrations make whiny, spoiled, self-pitying Sammy look like a defective Cabbage Patch doll and his stuffed Mr. Cat looks like road kill. If you want to PUNISH a child, make them read this book. If you want to read a fun story that really gets the point across about being able to go to other adults for help, read "Junie B Jones & Her Big Fat Mouth" by Barbara Park - that is what my 7 year old and I are doing!

The thing with the ten commandments are of course that they are not Gods Laws. Rather they are a set of commitments which those who believe in the Judeo Christian God make.

A law is a defined rule which carries some form of sanction. If we look at some of the commandments we find that some such as the ban on stealing, murder and Adultery are similar to things which we would see as laws. However if we take the last commandment though shall not covert. Rather than proscribing an action it suggests that one should not have certain thoughts or longings. One can see the rationale of trying to stop people having such thoughts but surely one would not see it as a law.

If we look at the commandments as a whole they are better characterised as a series of commitments to a belief system. They do not start of from the basis that there are certain sorts of behaviour which we should try to stamp out. Rather the basis of them is the notion of the Judeo Christian God who at the time Exodus was written represented a unique notion of religion. That is instead of Gods being divine beings who had power beyond that of a mortal, and whose capricious ways one sought to buy off by ritual sacrifice, the Judeo Christian God was one who wanted a unique and personal relationship with man. The commandments were a way by which a person who committed himself/herself to the religion identified themselves as doing so.

Schlessinger is a person who works as a talk show host. That is to say she does not have a job which gives her a lot of insight into the world, rather it is a job in which she can talk off the top of her head to people who are usually stupider than her. Not the sort of employment which leads to a lot of self knowledge.

Rather than seeing the commandments for what they are, an important development in religious thought for their time, but a scheme of belief rather than practical rules Schlessinger puts her own spin on them. That is a basis for suggesting the correctness of her own moral vision.

The problem with the commandments is that if they are analysed as laws rather than as a series of commitments they do not make a lot of sense. They are vague, there are no definitions no mention of penalties or graduations of importance. This enables Schlessinger to turn a series of statements into something that they are not. A bit of [information] for a certain view of the world.