REVIEW: Flour Babies by Anne Fine

Written by the same author of “Madame Doubtfire” (Mrs. Doubtfire movie starring Robin Williams), the book begins with a noisy class of pre-teen boys in the UK on their usual day of traumatising their form teacher, Mr Cartright.

This day, the teacher is reviewing their project options for the Science Fair.

Naturally, the boys all want past projects like “the Soap Factory”, “the Maggot Farm” or “the Exploding Custard Tins”…

Mr. Cartright is quick to throw a wet blanket on their fun as his vivid recollection of the havoc wreaked the previous year. As he agonizes over the boys’ difficulty in choosing a project, the school’s famous troublemaker, Simon Martin, makes the choice unconsciously by barging into the class late, just after the teacher threatens that the ONE who makes noise will decide for all.

Poor Simon Martin had eavesdropped on his teacher’s conversation earlier in the morning and in his innocent boyish mind, he thought he had stumbled upon the teachers’ biggest SECRET to the ultimate boy’s fun – exploding sacks of flour!

These are the “flour babies”, the least attractive option on the list for the Science Fair – 6 lb bags of flour “babies” that must be cared for EVERYTIME, EVERYWHERE. However, Simon manages to persuade his entire class that THIS is THE best project of all LOL

Trusting the school’s most popular detention class student, the boys all go for it, taking these 5 rules in stride:

1. The flour babies must be kept clean at all times
2. Flour babies will be put on the official scales twice a week to check for any weight loss…or any weight gain.
3. No flour baby may be left unattended at any time, night or day.
4. You must keep a Baby Book and write in it daily.
5. Certain persons (who shall not be named until the experiment is over) shall make it their business to check on the welfare of the flour babies…

While most of the boys take to the flour babies like any loud, sweaty, food-and-fun-loving boy, Simon Martin approaches it thouthfully. Abandoned by his father when he was 6 weeks old, he peppers his Mum with many questions about how and what it was like when he was a “flour baby”.

Taken aback, his Mum answers his questions as best as she can but Simon realizes that he needs to find the answers to all his questions about his Dad on his own. Writing in his “Baby Book” helps him crystallize his thoughts and his uncharacteristic tender feelings towards his pet project.

I had many hearty laughs over the boys’ mixed reactions towards the “flour babies”, their range of responsibilities and also their journal entries. After all, these are 10-11 year old boys tasked to be “fathers” for an extended period of time while going to school, doing homework, playing football, doing household chores and other activites in a regular boy’s life.

In the end, I find that the book is less a book on a Science Fair project but more of a young boy’s thoughts on the issue of separation, abandonment and life in a single parent household.

In most cases of single parent households, it is not obvious to the sole father or mother that the child/children tend to feel “guilty” that they had in some way caused the other parent to leave the family.

Simon Martin’s spoken and written thoughts shed a light on this issue, albeit in a lighthearted way. From being the school bully and troublemaker, he emerges a mature and responsible young boy – realizing that he is also NOT ready to be a father yet.

Unlike his father, he knows this, addresses his nurturing feelings towards the flour baby and moves on as a young, carefree boy with his life ahead of him

“Flour Babies” is a Winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and the Carnegie Medal.

Rating:

Tagged as: family issues, growing up, humour, school