Flour Babies » (Unabridged)

When the annual school science fair comes round, Mr Cartright's class don't get to work on the Soap Factory, the Maggot Farm or the Exploding Custard Tins. To their intense disgust they get the Flour Babies - sweet little six-pound bags of flour that must be cared for at all times. Young Simon Martin, a committed hooligan, approaches the task with little enthusiasm. But, as the days pass, he not only grows fond of his flour baby, he also comes to learn more than he ever could have imagined about the pressures and strains of being a parent.

Publishers Weekly

Flour babies are the six-pound sacks of flour that the boys in Room 8--the classroom for underachievers and behavioral problems at the St. Boniface School --have been told to treat as real babies for three weeks, for the purposes of scientific inquiry. They are to keep the flour babies ``clean and dry at all times,'' to maintain their proper weight (``Flour babies will be put on the official scales twice a week to check for any weight loss''), and never, never to leave their side, unless ``a responsible babysitter can be arranged.'' But while Robin Delaney has drop-kicked his flour baby into the creek, burly Simon Martin experiences a true tenderness toward his. He keeps ``her'' safe during soccer practice, even though he gets kicked off the team in the process. Simon writes in his journal each day (``reproductions'' of the entries appear here), he finds himself excited and involved in school for the first time; he simultaneously discovers a new appreciation for his mother and confronts previously buried feelings about his absent father. Fine ( Alias Mrs. Doubtfire ) writes with delicious wit and delicate sympathy. She takes a down-to-earth scenario and, like her protagonist, turns it into an extraordinary adventure in living and learning. Ages 10-up. (May)