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Books That Drive Kids CRAZY! #1
Das ist ein Ball
For the grown-ups: You know how you're right all the time? All. The. Time. Yes, well, it's time to give the kids a turn. Which is why everything you read in this book is going to be wrong. But that's okay, because the kids are going to correct you. And they're going to love it!
Hardcover
First published April 1, 2015
4 people are currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
Beck Stanton
15 books12 followersBeck Stanton is the co-creator of the Books That Drive Kids Crazy series and a mother, primary school teacher, and the creative director/owner of mybabymoments.com.au. She has worked extensively with children throughout her teaching career and in roles that include before-and-after school care center director, nanny, and youth and children’s worker.
She lives by the beach in Sydney with Matt Stanton and their daughter Bonnie and son Boston.
She lives by the beach in Sydney with Matt Stanton and their daughter Bonnie and son Boston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews
December 11, 2018
Our library has a whole bunch of books from this series, and I was intrigued enough to pick up the first couple (Goodreads lists this as Book 1; I'm not sure why the synopsis says otherwise).
It's goofy and silly, but it's going to have a fairly limited audience. For the premise to work as intended, the child needs to be either fairly precocious or a bit older. They need to have a good grasp of the English language, or it could cause confusion. They can't be colourblind. Some autistic kids (or any kids who take things really literally) are probably going to have a tough time with this one, and it may end up being more frustrating than entertaining. For the full effect, I think kids need to be able to get the joke.
Reading it as an adult, I enjoyed it somewhat. I think I probably would've thought it was funny when I was a little kid. Whether this is a hit or a miss is going to depend largely upon the audience. I guess parents won't really know if it'll work with their kids unless they give it a try.
It's goofy and silly, but it's going to have a fairly limited audience. For the premise to work as intended, the child needs to be either fairly precocious or a bit older. They need to have a good grasp of the English language, or it could cause confusion. They can't be colourblind. Some autistic kids (or any kids who take things really literally) are probably going to have a tough time with this one, and it may end up being more frustrating than entertaining. For the full effect, I think kids need to be able to get the joke.
Reading it as an adult, I enjoyed it somewhat. I think I probably would've thought it was funny when I was a little kid. Whether this is a hit or a miss is going to depend largely upon the audience. I guess parents won't really know if it'll work with their kids unless they give it a try.
November 4, 2018
5* art
5* concept
You know how much time you spend trying to teach your kids about life, and how ready they seem to believe the craziest things? You will be surprised how much they resist being told a lie. I don't know if this book was funnier for me or for Squirt. He was shouting "No! That's NOT a ball!!!" and I was laughing at how disturbed he was. Lots of fun.
5* concept
You know how much time you spend trying to teach your kids about life, and how ready they seem to believe the craziest things? You will be surprised how much they resist being told a lie. I don't know if this book was funnier for me or for Squirt. He was shouting "No! That's NOT a ball!!!" and I was laughing at how disturbed he was. Lots of fun.
July 23, 2016
This is a very interesting book (saccharine sweet and annoying explanation on the back for adults notwithstanding). It can be used in a variety of ways to encourage agency and criticism by the child (in a playful way) to set up collaborative and active reading practice (kids just itch to read the big text and argue about what it means) and basically to use all four reader identities when reading.
I was reading Foucault about language, interpretation, semiotics in my adult life and when I brought this book out to read to a child i thought "here we sort of have kindergarten post-structuralism" which was fun. Also I notice that many (professional, intelligent) mothers see the label "scary monster" on the purple princess as quite valid and one child went through a complicated explanation of how she is "monstrous" citing no fingers and no feet which led to an interesting discussion of ability and not needing to other differently-abled bodies.
I don't always like giving kids a false sense that they are the boss of the entire universe, I think we err on that side far too much particularly with white, wealthy, male children but on the other hand breaking down the adult-right, child-wrong binary can sometimes be a good thing and also calling to question symbolic systems and things that "just are" is always a good way to go.
That and the children giggle while they read and reread!
I was reading Foucault about language, interpretation, semiotics in my adult life and when I brought this book out to read to a child i thought "here we sort of have kindergarten post-structuralism" which was fun. Also I notice that many (professional, intelligent) mothers see the label "scary monster" on the purple princess as quite valid and one child went through a complicated explanation of how she is "monstrous" citing no fingers and no feet which led to an interesting discussion of ability and not needing to other differently-abled bodies.
I don't always like giving kids a false sense that they are the boss of the entire universe, I think we err on that side far too much particularly with white, wealthy, male children but on the other hand breaking down the adult-right, child-wrong binary can sometimes be a good thing and also calling to question symbolic systems and things that "just are" is always a good way to go.
That and the children giggle while they read and reread!
April 19, 2023
True title. My kids were arguing with the book the whole time. Too funny!
May 2, 2019
Age: Preschool-3rd grade
Everything written in this book is wrong. Everything the reader says will be wrong. Adults must read this with absolute certainty and resolve. Do this and the kids will love trying to correct you. Groans of disdain will cry forth until the very end. A great book for children to laugh through their annoyance.
Everything written in this book is wrong. Everything the reader says will be wrong. Adults must read this with absolute certainty and resolve. Do this and the kids will love trying to correct you. Groans of disdain will cry forth until the very end. A great book for children to laugh through their annoyance.
July 11, 2018
I think this would work really well in a storytime.
September 5, 2018
I am a bit undecided about this book. In essence having the text problematise and contrast and add to the pictures is interesting (I mean obviously the princess/monster thing). And I like the limited colour palatte, the punchy illustrations, the idea of questioning the authority figure, the consistency in the new nomenclature. Having said that, I do think it posits an audience of children (or, I guess adults) who are confident enough in the English language to get what is going on. And my storytime is not that -- there are numerous children within my programs who are specifically being bought to be exposed to reading by a native speaker. An interesting choice for very particular children.
Update: Read to 60 3-4 year olds. They LOVED it. They loved correcting me and explaining what they were seeing. Recommended.
Update: Read to 60 3-4 year olds. They LOVED it. They loved correcting me and explaining what they were seeing. Recommended.
June 30, 2017
4.5
Teach your child about the slippage of signification and the limits of definitions in language. A post-modern tour-de-force for your 3-5 year-old. OR confuse the living hell out of them for fun and watch the piss off their teachers! All-in-all it will be a fun ride for you and the child. HA!
Teach your child about the slippage of signification and the limits of definitions in language. A post-modern tour-de-force for your 3-5 year-old. OR confuse the living hell out of them for fun and watch the piss off their teachers! All-in-all it will be a fun ride for you and the child. HA!
October 14, 2017
A fun book to use with older kids -- preschool or family storytime possibly.
December 4, 2018
Pretty dang funny. My 6-year old was cracking up. Clever concept, and I think it would work well in a storytime or classroom setting.
November 18, 2019
Both of my oldest (4.5 and 3) laughed so hard!
April 23, 2022
IM ASTOUNDED AT HOW THIS BOOK IS. I FELT SUPER SMART!!!! It put me on a rollercoaster of emotions.
January 17, 2020
Best story time ever. The kids weren’t buying it, and I got to troll a class of pre-K smarty pants.
April 13, 2024
Thank you Robin for the book recommendation!
February 5, 2026
Had I paid attention I would have told my son no to this book because it is very frustrating to read / comprehension for a 5 year old is not quite there. Maybe better for ages 6 and up. Illustrations are nice but not amazing, would rate 3/5 stars ⭐️
December 6, 2022
hilarious
October 7, 2020
My first graders learning English loved this one. They were so indignant that the author did not know the right English words!
October 28, 2018
This book has been added to my bookshelf on request of my 16 year old son. He stood in the shop, killing himself with laughter. It appeals to his sense of humour. There aren't many picture books I can enjoy with my teenagers, and this is one of them.
October 25, 2019
Hilarious
October 17, 2019
Was great for giving an obvious way to practice critical thinking.
October 13, 2019
Kids enjoyed this one and kept giggling the whole way through - then wanted a re-read.
December 29, 2017
Excellent story time book. Read this with a bunch of 3-K kids and even got the extremely reluctant child that hardly ever seems interested in the stories talking back to me. This whole book encourages kids to try to set you straight. I did sort of wish for a different ending that somehow acknowledged that the kids were right that wasn't provided, so I ad-libbed something both times I read it. Hence the missing star, an adult, if mistaken or proven wrong should admit it to children, in my opinion, so I just did it on my own. If it had a clever wrap up with that thought in mind I would have bumped up the stars. This isn't a reread book though, more for someone that has multiple groups of little children to read to. I can't see it being enjoyable over and over again, nor the illustrations enticing enough to look at again, but for it's purpose, it's fun.
August 24, 2017
This book is clever and invites interactivity and dialogic reading as a child will certainly try to persuade their adult reading partner that, for instance, an elephant is not a dog just because it has four legs and a tail. A kids' book about syllogisms! Who'd've thunk it?!
I don't love it, though. The tone and typeface are just soooo derivative of The Book with No Pictures, that I felt like I'd read (a better version of) this book a million times before.
I don't love it, though. The tone and typeface are just soooo derivative of The Book with No Pictures, that I felt like I'd read (a better version of) this book a million times before.
April 15, 2015
My 5 year old absolutely loved this! She squealed with glee at my errors, and corrected me every time. The text is so simple and well written. It anticipates the child's response perfectly and challenges their arguments, making them explain their reasoning in even more detail. The simple illustrations using bold colours reminded me of Dick Bruna. So much fun!
May 27, 2015
I read this book to the kids who come to the library for Storytime today. They were so involved and earnest in setting me right, so flabbergasted that anyone could hold up an image of an elephant and call it a dog, that I was hard put to keep reading it aloud through my own laughter. Great choice for the pre-school set!
July 8, 2017
It seems the reader is at odds with the illustrator. Some confusions are clearly the opposite (ball/block circle/square) but others have at least one characteristic in common (the dog/elephant both have four legs, a tail, and eyes). However, throughout the whole book the mix-ups remain the same it's easy for little ones to follow along.
October 20, 2017
This is a great read alike for fans of The Book with No Pictures. It seems most appropriate for late toddler-preschool and would be perfect for storytime! I love how it helps kids look past the obvious and also turns stereotypes on their head!
October 23, 2017
A book you should probably not read before bed because it will have you laughing out loud and unable to get your child to sleep, but a must read for sure. As you can see from the cover this title is all about misdirection. Go on a journey with your child and see who comes out the winner of this creative and funny title.
May 2, 2019
Everything written in this book is wrong. Everything the reader says will be wrong. Adults must read this with absolute certainty and resolve. Do this and the kids will love trying to correct you. Groans of disdain will cry forth until the very end. A great book for children to laugh through their annoyance.
Reviewed by: Miss Kelsey, Youth and School Services, Vernon Area Public Library
Reviewed by: Miss Kelsey, Youth and School Services, Vernon Area Public Library
June 2, 2015
I love how picture books are seeking to interact with children now, how they are helping children to develop their listening skills from sitting back to be spoon fed a story, to listening and being prompted to think.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews