Say What?

Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix

The book opens with Sukie, age six, running through the living room, she knows what she is doing is against the rules but is choosing to do it anyway. When dad catches her instead of, “How many times have we told you not to run in the house.” he says, “If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it too?” Then she accidentally spills the glitter she is holding and he says, “Don’t pick your nose, that’s a gross habit.”

Something is up.

At dinner when Sukie eats her peas off her plate with her fingers, Mom says, “You’ll put an eye out with that thing!” And when her oldest brother, Brian who is nine, tattles that Sukie is kicking him under the table, Mom’s reply is, “Waste not, want not.”

When Sukie wants to talk to her brother about this, he promptly shows no interest in his little sister until Sukie promises him her allowance for two weeks and to make his bed for the rest of this month. The children gather with their middle brother, Reed age seven, to have an all-kid meeting. Sukie is upset about her parents lack of reason whereas Reed just says that he “usually doesn’t listen to them. “Brian’s contribution is that he doesn’t pay much attention either because they are always saying the same thing over and over again. His opinion is that Sukie is so dumb because she’s younger that she might actually expect them to say something new. The conclusion is that the children need to misbehave, on purpose.

To that end, Reed begins smudging the walls with handprints; Dad’s response, “Eat your vegetables.” After more intentional rule-breaking with similar results Brian’s first thought is that his parents are robots and need to be repaired.

After sneaking out of bed at night Reed discovers that his Mom and Dad are following the advice of a magazine article from “New Ways of Parenting”. To get their kids attention back they are repeating “Parentspeak phrases” that the kids have learned to tune out. The article states that, “Children secretly crave rules and order.”

So the children go on counter-attack, they make a list of things they say all the time, including: “Make me.”, “Connor’s parents let him.” and “I didn’t mean to.”. After school the next day Brian had accidentally put his muddy shoes on his mom’s favorite pillow. When she says, “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” He retorts, “Sukie started it!” Believing he has won the first battle he goes to tell his brother and sister.

Things escalate from here, the whole family goes around saying phrases that don’t apply to the situation (when Reed leaves his action figures spread out on the floor his mom says, “How would you feel is someone called you stupid?” to which he replies, “Can I have dessert now?” At the end everyone in the family has talked about their differences, tried to understand each other’s points of view and the parents agree to stop telling the kids the same things over and over (reminding them mostly about the safety issues rather than being mad over spilled milk or when they trip and fall). And the kids promise to try harder to remember the things their parents want them to do.

Conclusion:
I was sincerely unimpressed by the brother/sister relationship in this book, even more so with the parent’s relationship with their children. However it would be a good way to open a discussion about parental authority, listening and respect within a family.
Other negative elements include: Brian saying, “Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye.”, he also calls his sister “stupid.” The book constantly refers to the parents “yelling” at the kids, however in reality when the parents correct the children in a fairly normal tone the kids call it “yelling”.

Buy this book at Amazon.com for $3.99.