Pacifiers Are Not Forever

Best Behavior

by Elizabeth Verdick, Marieka Heinlen (Illustrator)

For many young children, giving up the pacifier is a major milestone. This board book offers warm, comforting words and pictures to ease the transition and make it a positive experience for kids and grown-ups alike. The focus is on minimizing stress and drama, dealing with feelings of loss and frustration, finding fun things to do without a pacifier, and finally being pacifier-free. Includes helpful tips for parents.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

24 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Elizabeth Verdick has been writing books since 1997, the year her daughter was born. Her two children, now ages 13 and 8, are the inspiration for nearly everything she writes. Before becoming an author, Elizabeth edited books for children and parents.

These days she writes books for toddlers to teens, and everything in between. She especially loves creating new board book series for toddlers—the latest series is Toddler Tools™, which helps young children and their parents cope with those tough times and transitions that happen every day (like naptime and bedtime). The Best Behavior™ series helps toddlers reach new milestones and improve their day-to-day behavior.

Elizabeth also enjoys getting the chance to look at the funny side of life in the Laugh and Learn™ series, which helps kids ages 8–13 get a handle on the social/emotional skills they’re developing throughout the elementary– and middle school years. Elizabeth lives with her family and five pets near St. Paul, Minnesota.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice 'tactical manual' to help parents make 'binky' go 'bye-bye' - love the idea of the 'Binky Fairy' taking binky away to give it to another child.

[Keli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis

This brightly colored board book gently guides children through the process of giving up their pacifier.

Review

Giving up a pacifier can be traumatic for a young child. This book tries to present it in a positive light. It offers suggestions for finding comfort other than a pacifier as well as saying how grown up the child is for giving up his/her pacifier. It treats the subject matter in a lighthearted way without ignoring how difficult it can be for the child. The simple and brightly colored pictures are attractive and easy to see for a child in the target audience. The end of the book offers suggestions to parents to have a positive weaning experience. While this book is not appropriate for a wide range of children, it could be a positive way for a parent to introduce the child to weaning from a pacifier.

Critical Reviews

Children's Literature
This was the only available review. Mostly it repeats the content of the book. However, it does mention the warm-fuzzy aspect of the book and how it "will help your child think about and take steps to move away from a pacifier."

Other Bibliographic Information

Published in 2007 by Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.

24 pages

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as catchy as diapers are not forever or teeth are not for biting, it’s still good at providing language for me to talk about ditching the paci.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I'm greeted by a gang of adolescents chanting "Put the passy in the trashy", I'd be goddamn terrified.

My toddler has adopted the advice of this book, as with the rest of the indoctrination series by Verdick, and now yodels when she would have used her pacifier. It horrifies strangers, but soothes her effectively.

As with Diapers Are Not Forever, we see a dog full of encouraging thoughts for toddlers making life changes. Again, we have to ask why the dog feels this way. Is the dog hoping to snag the abandoned pacifier once the little girl would no longer care? Is this the same dog as in the other book, just with a different collar? Does the dog have some sort of nomadic existence like the cat from "A Talking Cat!?!", with a drunken Eric Roberts voicing it as it guides hapless fools through major transitions?

[Noah Saenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many kids, growing up is tough, especially when trying to get rid of the comfort of a pacifier. This book is 100% for kids growing out of this stage, or stubbornly staying in it. This book shows kids many different children of color who are happy that they do not need their pacifier anymore.

This book is very important for any child, toddler, or baby as it helps expand their vocabulary, gets them used to hearing your voice, and can help expand their brains with the hands on learning of a book. The book also allows for learning about other people of color and how they are exactly like us.

Highly recommend for new parents and children embarking on this planet.

[Alexandria Tietz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very cute for younger children. Especially if you are trying to break them of the Pacifier stage. It explains cute ideas to do in order to break the pacifier habit. The author did great with the illustrations and provides a lot of good information in this book that would be appropriate for younger children.

[Principle Based Learning]

(recommended by: Ashley B)
Click here for the full article on: More Than Just Fairytales

[Kit Feral · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite helpful for my three year old twins.

[Rose Pavlicek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great suggestions

This childrens's book is full of picyures and sugestions children can try when it's time to give up their pacifier.

[Eva_Amaré · Rating 3 out of 5]

One day we had our binkies, the next they were just gone. It was a sad day and an even longer night. Not sure why mama would get this book that reminds us of a happier time that her and daddy took from us. We can't give an honest review of this book, because we couldn't bring ourselves to get into it and risk the heartache all over again. 😢👶

[Alicia Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

For: readers looking for a book that helps with the transition to not using a pacifier anymore (with some additional talking points for parents/caregivers in the back).

Possible red flags: some may feel too simplistic.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

My daughter reacted much more favorably to Bye Bye Binky. And that one is more fun to read for me.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept and she enjoys the book. I sure hope it helps get rid of them!

[Nicole]

It's a little didactic.

[Mei-Ling · Rating 3 out of 5]

basic but effective

[Elizabeth S · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book without a hidden purpose. No value to the book if you aren't trying to help your kid get rid of the pacifier.

[Maren Prestegaard · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good book but didn't inspire. will probably just have to go cold turkey.

[Sheba · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was on the fence about this one. The information is accurate and useful, it just didn't appeal to me like the teeth book did. Perhaps I'm a bit more lax regarding when to release a pacifier.