Customer Reviews

Where the Girls Are

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was brought to my attention by my Children's lit. Professor at Trent University. The pictures are wonderfully surreal, and display images that we, as adults, may find odd. However children understand that these are meant only as a parody. I think some people, those who do not give children enough credit for being able to rationalize things themselves, may find this book to be too disturbing for children. I think in doing that they are greatly dissevering the child.

I checked this book out from the library and did not look at it closely enough before reading it to my daughter. Some of the pictures are disturbing. For example, "Y is for Yvonne is waiting for a movie". The picture shows a little girl laying on the floor staring at a TV with an array of knives, forks, axes, etc. around her. Not exactly an image I'd like my 3 year old to see or wonder about.

where the girls are exemplifies the absolute best in children's literature. it is unique, poetic, surreal, and above all eccentric. it portrays the quality that we so often fail to pass on to children: wacky playfulness. i wish more kids books would take themselves less seriously. after all, we are only kiddies once. go get it.

I was idly glancing through this book at a friend's house, and I thought, "Oh, it's an alphabet book." Then the father came by and said, "That's a great book. It's truly bizarre." Then I started actually looking at the pictures and realized that yes, it is truly bizarre. Each page gives the name of a girl (and tells what they're doing) but you have to look closely at the pictures to see what's really going on. For example, "D" says, "Deidre practises for a career" and the illustration shows her pretending to be the Pope. My husband and I were looking at it together--our favorite was "Sybil is freezing," where Sybil is standing on a dismal street with her hands inside a fur muff, which on closer inspection proves to be a whole cat (her hand is in its mouth). I don't think this was meant for children (I don't think they'd get half of it anyway) but parents with a twisted sense of humor will get a kick out of it!