cover image The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting

The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting

Bunmi Laditan. Scribner, $19.99 (256 pages) ISBN 978-1-4767-3371-5

Thanks to large Twitter and Facebook followings, Laditan outed herself as the mind behind The Hon-est Toddler to write a compilation of the cheeky child's musings on ideal parenting methods. Far from being a basic parenting guide, or really any kind of parenting guide, Laditan writes from the perspec-tive of the toddler who is best kept in check with candy and immediate capitulation to any and all de-mands. She nudges parents to take a skeptical view of currently-popular parenting guides and child-rearing techniques while musing on universal experiences of little ones such as the difficulties of ac-cepting mom's alone time and social media's influence on toddler food and clothing: "When you shower alone, you hurt your toddler's feelings and damage her spirit," and "Pinterest not only distracts parents from their number one job, it directly hurts toddlers by threatening their lifestyles." Her self-indulgent little angel is also unremittingly anti-infant and discourages the acquisition of them. Laditan also offers realistic problem-solving techniques and snappy answers for questions that are bound to come up again and again. Parents who can recognize the absurdity and humor in everyday life%E2%80%94and are comfortable with their roles and choices%E2%80%94will laugh out loud. (May)