When I was little : a four-year-old's memoir of her youth

Rating

Know-it-all four year old.

A little girl talks about all the differences between her now and her when she was a baby. I think it's a little outdated, because of things like, "When I was little I rode in a baby car seat, now I ride like a grownup and wave at policemen," but the kid is maybe only five years old, and nowadays our kids ride in car seats until they're much older. It's not a bad book. It's a bit gender normative because of parts like the one where it says, "When I was little I didn't know I was a girl. My mom told me." As she's in the tub applying "Beauty Treatment" and "Luscious Hair".

It's kind of cute, and some of them are comparisons like "When I was little I spilled a lot and my mom said I was a handful. Now I'm helpful," when the kid is clearly covered in food. Sometimes the pictures are a bit of an inside joke for parents. The ending is kind of sappy. "When I was little I didn't know what a family was. When I was little I didn't know what dreams were. When I was little I didn't know who I was. Now I do." I still don't know who I am, and I'm in my 30s. Still working on that one, Jamie Lee Curtis. Still working on that one.

Message

You get to do a lot more fun things when you're older than you did when you were a baby.

Illustrators
Publication Year
1993
Age Range
4-8
Number of Pages
29
Number of words on a typical page
20