How to Train the Perfect Parents

In this absolute hoot of a picture book, we meet Mimi Lee, who is convinced that she has the failsafe three-step plan to make her parents do anything she wants them to.  They just have to be trained.  Her utmost desire in life is to have a puppy, and she goes about training her parents that this is a necessity by step 1- Communicating.  This entails constantly walking past the pet shop and shouting ‘puppy’, refusing any clothes except those with pictures of dogs on them, and practicing facial expressions in the mirror that show her likes and dislikes.  Step 2 is Trust.  This means showing how responsible you are by making the parents breakfast in bed and leaving chaos in the process.  Well-trained parents will ‘ignore any accidents’!  Routine is the third step, and this is provided by wanting to read a book about dogs time after time after time… until the parents are heartily sick of it.  Then there is the ‘big push’ when Mimi can talk of nothing but puppies and finally gets her wish.  She is ecstatic, of course, but then the real truth hits.  Puppies are NOT easy to train, and her three-step plan does no good at all.  She is soon realising that she needs help – help provided by her loving but often bemused parents.  The illustrations are wonderful.  Full of humour and fun, they pop and sparkle with lots of detail.  Children and parents both will love them and enjoy the story together – hopefully not quite so many times as in step 3!