Flour babies - Anne Fine

...daughter chose to borrow was Flour Babies by Anne Fine. I recalled hearing some good things about this, so asked her if I could read it after she had finished it.

The cover is really cute too – a brown sack of flour with a pink dress and long lashed eyes. There is also an embossed gold medal on the front, proclaiming the novel as being the winner of both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award.

The story follows ...
...picking the project intriguingly called Flour Babies. This involves each boy in the class looking after a little sack of flour weighing six pounds. They have to treat the sack like a real baby and have certain rules to follow. This includes keeping it clean and dry, not leaving it unattended and arranging babysitters if necessary. The project also states they need to keep a daily diary or a Baby Book, where they record their experiences looking after ... more

As it is currently the school holidays, we have been spending a few hours at the local library. One of the books my ten-year-old daughter chose to borrow was Flour Babies by Anne Fine. I recalled hearing some good things about this, so asked her if I could read it after she had finished it.

The cover is really cute too – a brown sack of flour with a pink dress and long lashed eyes. There is also an embossed gold medal on the front, proclaiming the novel as being the winner of both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award.

The story follows the exploits of the notorious class 4C and their long-suffering teacher, Mr. Cartright. Class 4C contains all the rejects – the naughty boys, the thick ones, the lads that no one really wants to teach. So when the teacher has to get them involved in the annual school science fair, he isn’t very optimistic.

They have a choice of options, but end up picking the project intriguingly called Flour Babies. This involves each boy in the class looking after a little sack of flour weighing six pounds. They have to treat the sack like a real baby and have certain rules to follow. This includes keeping it clean and dry, not leaving it unattended and arranging babysitters if necessary. The project also states they need to keep a daily diary or a Baby Book, where they record their experiences looking after their flour baby.

Simon Martin is the biggest, toughest boy in the class and the one that gets into trouble the most. So when he appears to be the most enthusiastic, Mr. Cartright is suspicious, then bewildered. Simon manages to persuade the other boys that the project is worthwhile and soon, they are producing a standard of work much higher than their teacher could ever have dreamed about.

Simon is also learning a lot about himself. He finds himself taking his new ‘paternal’ responsibilities very seriously, which lead him to question his own father’s disappearance. He wonders what kind of a daddy he will make and how he will compare to his own father’s apparently poor efforts.

Being a children’s book, a lot of the issues are covered in a very innocent way, with never any mention of sex, but plenty of responsibility, choosing the right partner and being sensible. I think any child in a similar situation to Simon would also think about their own absent parent and the reasons behind it.

For older children who may be feeling broody or thinking of only the good side to becoming a parent, this book should help highlight the less glamorous side of babies. We are left in no doubt that babies are smelly, noisy, keep you awake at night, disrupt your social life and make even the easiest of errands much more difficult.

I found this book a good, light read, despite its underlying serious issues. It is a short paperback, only 156 pages and it didn’t take me or my daughter long to read. The teachers and pupils are well described and there are many familiar situations we will all recognise – teachers who take things too seriously and those who are easy for the children to get one over; kids who lead and kids who follow.

There is a lot of humour in the book and plenty of things will make you smile. There is also a fair bit of sadness – not anything that will make you cry, but some lovely poignant parts. I especially liked the bits about Simon discovering his feelings towards his father and the way he discovers the song he was whistling, when he left him and his mother.

Overall, I thought the book was well intentioned and delivered its messages well, without seeming preachy. I had a couple of minor irritations with it though. Firstly, there were very few female characters in the book, whereas the cover and subject matter would mainly appeal to girls. Secondly, the use of the word ‘fetched’ was very annoying – it grated, as it isn’t grammatically correct in this context (e.g. “no one had ever fetched up in 4C by accident”) and it seemed to be over-used too.

Otherwise, the language was good and there was a clever use of colloquialism employed so as to avoid any swearing, but to convey that is what the boys were actually doing. After all, a group of downtrodden teenage lads would certainly be coming out with a few expletives! Instead, the clever kids were called “ear’oles” and new exclamations like “Strick!” were used throughout.

I would suggest this book is suitable for children aged between eight and fourteen years old. My ten-year-old thought it was a very good book, but quite sad. When I asked her if she thought it was just a story or whether there was a message in it, she said she thought it taught you to treat children well and not to abandon them. When I asked her if it had put her off having a baby young, she said it hadn’t. Perhaps she needs a few weeks with a flour baby of her own?

FLOUR BABIES by Anne Fine
Published by Puffin, £3.50
ISBN 0-14-036147-2 

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