It's Not all Flowers & Sausages: Mini-Review

It's Not All Flowers & Sausages: My Adventures in Second Grade by Jennifer Scoggin--aka Mrs. Mimi--caught my eye on my last visit to the library. I opened it up and found an amusing tidbit and thought it would be a perfect short read for some of my reading challenges. It is intended to be a humorous look at Mrs. Mimi's life and times as a second grade teacher--with her takes on everything from administration to "teaching to the test" to parents and her "little friends" (as she calls her students).  It is a book that grew out her blog (It's Not All Flowers & Sausages) and covers everything from pee jokes to her cutesy nicknames for coworkers (The Fanny Pack) and students (Goggles, Braids, etc) alike.

I'm not quite sure what happened between reading that snippet at the library and bringing the book home, but somewhere in between most of the humor leaked out of the book. Not that there aren't any funny parts...but they were few and far between and I didn't enjoy the book nearly as much as anticipated. I also have two quibbles with Mrs. Mimi, who apparently counts herself among the "Super Teachers" group at her school. First...honey, if you're going to rag on your fellow teachers for their grammar, spelling and whatnot in various handouts and presentations mentioned throughout the book, then you ought to be a little bit closer to word perfect yourself. Several places could use a better editorial eye than they received.  Second, and maybe it's just me and the fact that I don't use swear words myself....but if you're a second grade teacher presenting a book about teaching second graders, then I don't expect to see swearing on every other (if not every) page of your precious tome. Surely to goodness you don't talk this way in front your little friends. But maybe that's supposed to be part of the humor.....Nah.

Overall, a fairly disappointing read that is shelved as non-fiction even though she goes out of her way to tell us that she's making things up--not real stories and not about real people (little or big).  So that would be fiction, yes? Oh, well, my library calls it non-fiction and so will I...for the challenges.  Two stars.