Home › Find a book › Flour Babies

Flour BabiesAnne Fine

Flour Babies

by Anne Fine

Ages 11–13 Reading age 11 Novel Set in school funnythoughtful

The worst class in the school is made to carry a six-pound bag of flour for three weeks as if it were a baby, and it changes Simon's mind about his father.

A story about children, funny and thoughtful in tone. We would put it with children of 11–13, and at a reading age of about 11 for reading alone.

Our take on this book

Simon Martin's class is landed with the Flour Babies project — each boy must care for a six-pound bag of flour as if it were a real infant, keeping it clean and never leaving it alone — and for Simon, whose own father walked out when he was tiny, lugging this ridiculous bundle around slowly turns into something that matters. Anne Fine, a former Children's Laureate and double Carnegie winner, is brilliant at comedy that suddenly deepens: the project is very funny, but through it Simon works his way towards understanding his absent dad, and himself. There is a thread of family separation running underneath the laughs, handled with honesty and no easy fix. For a reader of eleven to thirteen it is a sharp, funny, genuinely thoughtful novel about growing up and fatherhood, told from a boy's point of view — the kind of book that makes a teenager laugh and then, quietly, think.

If they like this, try these

Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.

Goggle-EyesAnne Fine

Goggle-EyesAnne Fine

Look Both WaysJason Reynolds

Look Both WaysJason Reynolds

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated RodentsTerry Pratchett

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated RodentsTerry Pratchett

There's a Boy in the Girls' BathroomLouis Sachar

There's a Boy in the Girls' BathroomLouis Sachar

Amari and the Great GameB. B. Alston

Amari and the Great GameB. B. Alston

Amari and the Night BrothersB. B. Alston

Amari and the Night BrothersB. B. Alston