Product Description

I had an idea to staple my brother's hair to his pillow. I am not allowed to use the stapler anymore.

Here's a kid full of ideas, all day long. For example, in the morning, gluing her brother's bunny slippers to the floor sounds like a good plan. But now she's not allowed to use glue anymore. And what about when she shows Joey Whipple her underpants—they're only underpants, right? Turns out she's not allowed to do that again, either. And isn't broccoli the perfect gift for any brother? It's just too bad her parents don't think so. But she has the last laugh in this humerous first picture book by an acclaimed novelist of books for adults.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35081 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-26
• Released on: 2006-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Amazon.com Review
From stapling her brother's hair to the pillow to freezing a dead fly in the ice cube tray, the impish protagonist of 17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore never rests. This unflappable mischief-maker leaves a trail of exasperated family members, teachers, and crossing guards in her wake, but somehow we suspect she will grow up just fine…as a brilliant writer or inventor, no doubt. Told in the first person, the book is simply a series of the girl's "ideas" ("I had an idea to do my George Washington report on beavers instead") and consequences ("I am not allowed to do reports on beavers anymore") One imagines the list growing infinitely longer and more absurd; setting limits on our heroine's activities clearly has no bearing on her future behavior or creativity.

Nancy Carpenter's illustrations, rendered in pen and ink and digital media on crumpled and emery-boarded paper (!) are the perfect foil to Jenny Offill's hilariously dry text. The cool-as-a-cucumber narrator simply reports--the illustrations and our own imagination fill in the blanks. Wonderful. --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 3–Ingenious artwork–a flawless marriage of digital imagery and pen-and-ink–is indisputably the focus of this winning title. In it, an incorrigible little girl lists all the bright ideas she's ever had and the various ways they've gotten her into trouble. From stapling her brother's hair to his pillow (no more stapler) to gluing his slippers to the floor (no more glue), her outside-the-box thinking attracts plenty of attention, all of it negative. Carpenter brings depth and texture to each spread by adjusting photo-realistic elements to scale and embedding them into the art. The effect is both striking and subtle–real wood grain, blades of grass, the chrome-plated details on classroom furniture–all are seamlessly integrated around a winsome cast of well-drawn characters. Some picture books are overconceptualized, overdesigned, and generally overdone, but this one is just about picture-perfect.–Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Offill's little narrator staples her brother's hair to his pillow, walks backward across the pedestrian crossing, and shows Joey Whipple her underpants when she does handstands in the schoolyard. Clear line-and-watercolor spreads add to the fun as the outrageous little rebel lies and boasts in class and washes her hands in the dog's dinner bowl. When she talks about freezing a dead fly in an ice cube, the picture shows her little brother drinking from a glass that contains an ice cube. She is unfazed by all the scowls she gets for acting up, though she says "I'm sorry" to her mom at the end. In the sweet pink picture of their warm embrace, however, she is plainly looking over her shoulder at the reader as she reaches for that stapler. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Great Book!
I read this book to my class and -- GASP! -- not ONE of them proceeded to set classmates on fire, show off their underwear, or display any of the other behaviors from the book. Judging from some of the reviews here, you'd think my whole class would become satan worshipers and start kicking puppies instead of soccer balls upon hearing this book.

What they DID do is laugh. A lot. This book was a lot of fun, and good for discussion, too. What exactly happened between the page where she told what she did and the page where she states she's not allowed to do it anymore?

But then we're having a conversation about her behavior, which some constipated, self-righteous prudes would rather we not do. According to them, if we don't see it in books (or TV or wherever), we won't be forced to talk about it, and if we don't talk about it, we won't think about it, and if we don't think about it, we won't do it. Too funny!

Terrible!!!!
I read the bad review for this book, but bought it anyway thinking the people that wrote the reviews were probably being ridiculous. They weren't! Thank goodness I read the book before giving it to my friends daughter, who will be five next month. A little good hearted mischieviousness is cute, but the girl in this book needs a spanking! She puts a magnifying glass in the sun, and catches one of her classmates at school on fire!!!!! Holy crap!! She catches a kid on fire!!! To say that I am open minded and liberal is an understatement, so if I feel this book is inappropriate, it will probably make most of you have a heart attack! Save your money!

I don't mind the book that much, but the nieces weren't very into it.
Read it in the bookstore.

Some of the misadventures are a little over-the-top in general mean-spiritedness, I'll agree. Most of them, though, are just what you'd expect a bright, bored child to come up with - like walking backwards all the way home.

As far as her encouraging "lying" on the last page (saying sorry when she doesn't mean it), the fact is that authority figures insist on this all the time. How many times have I watched Supernanny and the only way to get out of time-out is to say sorry - even when it's clear the kid is only sorry they got caught? Honestly admitting this is a step forwards, not backwards.

But, as always, I bow to the wishes of my nieces when deciding what to buy for them (at least, when I can't get it used and on sale!) And the one wasn't interested in the book, and the other actually didn't like it at all, requesting another book and saying that "She shouldn't do that!"

So a book that I'd rate four stars gets a star knocked off for not appealing to the kids it needs to appeal to - my own nieces.