User Profile

I think this was my second time reading the book... possibly third. Long enough ago that I didn't remember much of the details, but more of the broad strokes of the story.

Anyway, it was just as delightful this time as I remember from maybe a decade ago. Eoin Colfer does a fantastic job of giving the reader a living world to absorb into that's equal parts charming and clever. I'm a big fan of all the little puns and silly names, and the retcon of classic fairy tales is greatly amusing.

A fantastic read and highly recommended.

I imagine these works were more groundbreaking at the time of original publication. They're certainly an element of their time and can be reasonably compared to works such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or The Stars My Destination. I won't bother to provide any deep qualitative analysis here, other than to say that Ellison is clearly preoccupied with the bestial nature of humanity. There are no heroes in these stories, only lamentations of how consistently we fail to achieve any truly enlightened status.

Perhaps half a century ago, these stories would have been more disturbing and thought-provoking. In 2019, however, it just comes across as "Look at these terrible humans continuing to be terrible." I would recommend this book for its place in the history of Sci-Fi or those interested in exploring Ellison's writing style. However, I found the substance of the stories to be lacking.

Easy to read and put into practice. Our kids are only really old enough to do counting, but it's worked very well so far. I anticipate using the "Start behavior" techniques more in another year or two when they'll be old enough to do some charting or docking.

The book is seemingly written to specifically help those parents who are already having difficulty managing their kids and household, but you really can just use the techniques that make sense for you and your family, whatever your needs may be.