Reviews for Flour Babies

The average rating for Flour Babies based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-08-26 00:00:00 Kiki Mvknll Although the main protagonist of Anne Fine's Flour Babies (opinionated and often rather annoying and careless teenager Simon Martin) really and majorly despises school work, he does nevertheless and grudgingly accept his assignment of having to take home a large bag of flour and then look after and take care of said bag like a baby, like a newborn infant (well in Flour Babies, the take-home project uses bags of flour, while other similar types of school projects have and even in reality featured eggs, filled glass bottles, dolls, but ALWAYS objects that can and do tend to break, leak and even shatter due to lax prudence and care). And of course the concept behind these types of educational projects is to on the one hand instil a sense of responsibility into as yet often woefully carefree and naively irresponsible teenagers (how it feels to be totally and wholly on the proverbial hook for something, in this case a flour baby) and on the other hand to make both male and female adolescents think and consider twice with regard to sexuality, with regard to especially unprotected intercourse, as parenthood is shown to be, parenthood means continuous commitment, responsible thinking (or at least, it should). Now for Simon, who like the rest of his classmates, is asked to keep a diary of his feelings about being one hundred percent responsible for the welfare (the health) of his assigned flour baby, his feelings continuously mature throughout Flour Babies, moving from initial anger and disgust to for the first time actually beginning to understand why his mother is often so stressed out and irritated (and even somewhat coming to terms, even being able to fathom a bit why his father abandoned the family, why fatherhood was so traumatic an experience for him and to him that he left, that he ran away). And while the ending of Flour Babies is fortunately and appreciatively cautiously optimistic and hopeful, thankfully and realistically, Anne Fine also does not simply and completely have Simon Martin be transformed from somewhat of a slacker, a teenager with often annoying and frustrating attitudes and habits to some kind of a glowingly pure hero (for no, while the flour baby project has indeed left Simon wiser and more tolerant, he is and still can be rather a handful for his mother and his teachers, although he did actually and in fact do a much much better job caring for his flour baby than many if not most of his schoolmates, than his school friends did ).

Review # 2 was written on 2014-11-23 00:00:00 Nadine Loest Bittersweet story about struggling students and the unexpected effects of a science project.