Picture Paperbacks: When I Was Little Jamie-Lee Curtis (writer) Laura Cornell (illustrator) List Price: £4.99 Paperback - 32 pages (19 March, 1999) Little Hippo (Scholastic Children's Books); ISBN: 0590113232 This book is subtitled A Four Year Old's Memoir of her Youth, and it's a real charmer. How many times have you heard a four year old say, "I'm not a baby, I'm four"? Well, this book takes that feeling and runs with it. The unnamed little girl in the book tells us all about what she used to be able to do when she was a baby, and what she can do now. Part of the charm is the way the book doesn't gloss over the reality - the little girl may be big, but she's still a child. (When I was little, the slide at the park seemed really big. Now it seems smaller, but I still like my granny to wait at the bottom for me.) This struck me as an ideal book for a child trying to get used to a new baby in the house - partly as a reminder of what babies can do, and partly because of the way it bolsters the older child's ego and sense of self. (How can you be jealous of a little baby who can only eat 'goo and yucky stuff', when you can eat 'pizza and noodles and fruit and cheesy crisps'?) Laura Cornell's vivid, chaotic illustrations took a bit of getting used to, but they really do conjure up a child's view of the world. Return to index