The Handbook

July 17, 2017
In this kooky neighborhood caper from Benton (the Franny K. Stein series), three friends discover the manual parents use to maintain control of their kids. Twelve-year-old Jack is tired of his parents bossing him around, and his friend Mike and neighbor/crush Maggie feel the same about their elders. Then Jack, who enjoys scouring his neighbors’ trash for treasure, accidentally discovers an item that wasn’t meant to be discarded, the Secret Parent’s Handbook, which offers a master class in manipulation: “If the child has asked for something expensive, reply, ‘Do you think money grows on trees?’ That way you will have saved yourself from the unpleasantness of saying no and will have inflicted on the child a confusing question that will temporarily distract it from thinking about the object it has requested.” After reading the handbook, Jack and his friends turn the tables on their parents, but they’re soon caught between adult agents seeking the book and a kid-driven Resistance doing the same. It’s slapstick comedy meets conspiracy thriller, and it makes a good case for better, more open parent-child communication. Ages 8–12.

August 1, 2017

Gr 4-6-A middle grade dystopia with echoes of George Orwell's 1984. Jack and his friends discover a copy of the Secret Parent's Handbook, a guide that all mothers and fathers use in the rearing of their kids. It contains classic gems such as "Because I said so, that's why" and "You'll poke your eye out!" Once the kids get their hands on the book, they are able to override their parents' reactions and control their parents' behavior. When the children join the kid-led Resistance and begin acting out, Big Mother kidnaps them and tries to send them to Antarctica where they will be de-programmed before being allowed to return to their families. Humor is peppered with mild violence as agents shoot stun guns at wayward children and adults. In the hasty ending, both the kids and their parents decide that love conquers all and no one need to try to control the other. VERDICT The subtle and not-so-subtle references to Orwellian elements are likely to go unnoticed by the target audience. Hand to kids who like subversive, authority-challenging humor.-Lillian Hecker, Town of Pelham Public Library, NY

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
Twelve-year-old Jack's world is rocked by the discovery of a copy of the Secret Parent's Handbook in a neighbor's trash.Young readers raised like Jack, his crush Maggie, and his best bud Mike, constantly hearing such lines as "People are starving in India," "You want your face to freeze like that?" and the arbitrary "Because I said so" from their parents, will be slapping their foreheads--because of course there must be a standardized manual. And as the trio soon discovers, there's not only a printed volume, but a secret government Parents Agency charged with keeping it out of the hands of kids--and a kid Resistance dedicated to assembling the text bit by salvaged bit. Moreover, it soon becomes clear that if their newly aware offspring depart from the standardized scenarios in the book, parents don't have a clue what to do next and so can be easily manipulated. Is it any wonder then that all three white children and their families are climactically kidnapped by stun-gun-wielding men in black and slated for re-education camps? Or that masked Resistance ninjas should come bursting in to the rescue? At this point Benton's invention collapses, and the best resolution he can contrive is an unlikely detente. Still, the premise, backed up by quoted extracts from the Handbook, will be a game-changer for many. Eerily plausible, at least until the close. (Fiction? 10-13)

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