A review by marcomywords
Baby by Patricia MacLachlan
1.0
Do all adults in kids books really have to act irresponsibly?
Because it's starting to get on my nerves.
Larkin's parents are seriously neglecting their daughter and gush over the random baby. They are so terrible at communication that at this point, poeple have to actually look them in the eyes and hammer it home by repeating stupidly "use words". I swear I'm not joking, they are THAT dense.
Larkin's teacher is out of touch with reality and has zero work ethic, and yet is presented as inspirational somehow. She dismisses kids out of her classroom after telling them about a traumatic event in her past, leaving them to fend on their own because... POETRY? Yeah, its was supposed to be a poetry lesson: traumatize kids, read a sad poem about death with almost no warning, flirt with your crush before their eyes and that's it class is dismissed, that was poetry for you. Heammmm great!
Sophie's mom doesn't have a believable excuse for leaving her baby and certainly gives no sound basis for other poeple to believe she's going to be a decent parent now.
What on earth is the legal status of this ridiculous situation?
PLOT: ridiculous, can only exist in a world without law, without social services, without real adults anywhere
CHARACTERS: apparently we're supposed to like them?
STYLE: unbearable repetitions: "words. " "words?" "words." + equally unbearable inserts of poetry in the mix, just enough to make it a book about nothing, where the author basically wants the reader to know: "Patricia MacLachlan likes to read poems apparently"
MESSAGE: could you lay it on even thicker, do you think?
What a waste of my time.
Because it's starting to get on my nerves.
Larkin's parents are seriously neglecting their daughter and gush over the random baby. They are so terrible at communication that at this point, poeple have to actually look them in the eyes and hammer it home by repeating stupidly "use words". I swear I'm not joking, they are THAT dense.
Larkin's teacher is out of touch with reality and has zero work ethic, and yet is presented as inspirational somehow. She dismisses kids out of her classroom after telling them about a traumatic event in her past, leaving them to fend on their own because... POETRY? Yeah, its was supposed to be a poetry lesson: traumatize kids, read a sad poem about death with almost no warning, flirt with your crush before their eyes and that's it class is dismissed, that was poetry for you. Heammmm great!
Sophie's mom doesn't have a believable excuse for leaving her baby and certainly gives no sound basis for other poeple to believe she's going to be a decent parent now.
What on earth is the legal status of this ridiculous situation?
PLOT: ridiculous, can only exist in a world without law, without social services, without real adults anywhere
CHARACTERS: apparently we're supposed to like them?
STYLE: unbearable repetitions: "words. " "words?" "words." + equally unbearable inserts of poetry in the mix, just enough to make it a book about nothing, where the author basically wants the reader to know: "Patricia MacLachlan likes to read poems apparently"
MESSAGE: could you lay it on even thicker, do you think?
What a waste of my time.