The Good Little Girl

My six-year-old daughter fell madly in love with this book the first time she heard it, so much so that she wanted me to read it to her several times a day. At first I was a lot less enchanted with it than she was. ItÕs about a nice little girl who gets tired of being pushed around and lets the monster inside her come out. Literally. The monster is a green creature with bulging red eyes and black fingernails. The pictures of her are truly ugly. The monster gets more and more demanding and out of control until finally the nice little girl canÕt take it any more and comes back out. ItÕs got a good ending, but for me the monster-girl was a little disturbing. I guess I just usually like gentler childrenÕs books.But the more IÕve read this book (and IÕve read it a LOT!), the more IÕve realized how psychologically acute it is. My daughter is a lot like the "good little girl" Ð most of the time sheÕs neat and polite, and tries very hard to please adults. Those are wonderful qualities, but they can get in our way, too. Less polite kids shove you aside. Adults may overlook your needs because youÕre not loud or insistent enough. Life can be tough for "good" girls. The need to learn to be assertive without letting "the monster" get out of control. And I think the reason my daughter loves this book is that itÕs helping her to do that. In the end, when the good little girl comes back, sheÕs not a pushover anymore. SheÕs still nice, but she tells her parents very clearly and firmly what she wants.IÕm still not wild about the illustrations in this book (although I must admit theyÕre growing on me), but I now think that for a nice, quiet little girl, this is a perfect book.

Wildly original, I bought this after reading the author's other children's book -Beetle Boy. The Good Little Girl should not be overlooked. It's a great story about a sweet, nice, well-behaved girl named Miranda. But her busy, busy, busy parents (sound familiar?) just don't keep all their promises. And eventually, Miranda's alter-ego Lucretia takes over. And Lucretia is fantastic! She tortures her parents in hilarious ways that every kid will howl at. Far from being a guilt-trip for busy parents, this is a great, fun book that all working families can relate to and will enjoy. It's great when a book for kids doesn't "talk down" to kids or feature bunnies worrying about the rain. This is a hip, modern book that's really in touch with today.

This book is about a well behaved young girl who is often unable to get the attention of her busy parents. Finally she gets very mad and a nasty inner self appears and performs some very outrageous deeds until her family convinces their good little girl to return. Whenever I read this book aloud it is amazing how many children gather to listen.

My daughter's elementary school has a "book club" and one of the books that they all read was recently this book: The Good Little Girl, and she brought it home along with two other books to read during the week. Anyway, my husband and I read all three books, but this one was really different. It's a different sort of book, I don't know how to describe it. But my husband and I really loved it. I guess I mean to say, if you are a working parent, this would be a good book to read. And it has a terrific point, it's very family-oriented. It's really a sweet book, but it is very unusual. Also, the pictures are very good. The Good Little Girl is very adult in some ways. It's not a book about some bunny that jumps through the grass, it's about what it feels like to have parents that are too busy to pay attention. And I think that that is a "grown up" kind of topic for a book written for kids. But that is a good thing here with this book. I hope she writes more books.