Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
409th out of 502 books
—
805 voters
Nobody's Family Is Going to Change
In the world of children's literature, Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret are widely recognized as epoch-making. They have been received by young readers, year after year, with excitement and love. The new Fitzhugh novel shares the vigorous sense of comedy and the unflinching fidelity to the real world that distinguished her earlier books. Many readers w...more
Paperback, 221 pages
Published
September 1st 1986
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
(first published 1974)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
274)
4 and 1/2 stars (Not 5 only because I can't bear to give it as many stars as I did "Harriet the Spy")
I can't count how many times I read Fitzhugh's "Harriet the Spy" when I was a child and yet I didn't come across any of her other books then. I'd never heard of this one until I deciphered the clues in Lemony Snicket's Who Could That Be At This Hour? and it's no wonder Lemony loved this book -- it even has a secret organization integral to the plot.
Books like these were filed under Y (for Youth),...more
I can't count how many times I read Fitzhugh's "Harriet the Spy" when I was a child and yet I didn't come across any of her other books then. I'd never heard of this one until I deciphered the clues in Lemony Snicket's Who Could That Be At This Hour? and it's no wonder Lemony loved this book -- it even has a secret organization integral to the plot.
Books like these were filed under Y (for Youth),...more
If she had just written 'Harriet the Spy' before her untimely death, Louise Fitzhugh would have been an important figure in children's literature. Her other three books, although lesser known, are in many ways more groundbreaking, and certainly as well-written. In 'Nobody's Family is Going to Change,' she fearlessly tackles the touchy issue of a white writing about blacks. And she does this while standing stereotype on its head. Her African-Americans are an upper-class, Upper East Side family, w...more
Mar 09, 2010
Margaret
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children-s-and-ya-fiction,
authors-ef
I ran across this at Powell's a while back and picked it up at once; I'd never heard of it before, but of course I love Fitzhugh's other children's books (most notably the classic Harriet the Spy).
This one is about Emma, who wants to become a lawyer, and her little brother Willie, who wants to be a dancer, and their struggle to realize their dreams in spite of the opposition from their parents, who feel that boys shouldn't be dancers and girls shouldn't be lawyers. The book felt a little preach...more
This one is about Emma, who wants to become a lawyer, and her little brother Willie, who wants to be a dancer, and their struggle to realize their dreams in spite of the opposition from their parents, who feel that boys shouldn't be dancers and girls shouldn't be lawyers. The book felt a little preach...more
This is a book that every kid should read, perhaps without the knowledge of their parents. Its message is a startling one to find in a bildungsroman (of realistic, unsensational fiction) aimed at a preteen audience, because it is a harsh one. Sometimes the most brutal reads are where the things that happen are mundane in summary, on paper.
Fitzhugh does an incredible job with her characters. The Sheridan family is honestly depicted, warts and all. There is real, eleven-year-old rage (Emma the pro...more
Fitzhugh does an incredible job with her characters. The Sheridan family is honestly depicted, warts and all. There is real, eleven-year-old rage (Emma the pro...more
After hearing about this book on an episode of This American Life, I asked my school librarian if she would track down a copy for me. I enjoyed this book. Juvenile fiction is so straight-forward and it gets to you because it's written in a way you almost have to connect with the speaker. You can't spend that many words in a character's head without becoming them in a little way, assuming their thoughts and their conclusions. For that, this book is excellent: You can't expend yourself trying to c...more
Mostly this book was middle of the road good for me - I probably would have liked it more when I was a kid, because I use to get lost of Louise Fitzhugh in a major way that I can't really replicate as an adult.
But this book has one of the greatest all time moments/ends/messages. Spoiler alert: NOBODY'S FAMILY IS GOING TO CHANGE. ! Part of me wonders if I'd read this at age 10, or whatever, my whole life would be different, but another part of me thinks probably that would have been true for may...more
But this book has one of the greatest all time moments/ends/messages. Spoiler alert: NOBODY'S FAMILY IS GOING TO CHANGE. ! Part of me wonders if I'd read this at age 10, or whatever, my whole life would be different, but another part of me thinks probably that would have been true for may...more
May 31, 2011
Magpie Driftwood
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
ages 12-15, people with difficult families
I won't say this is one of the best books I've ever read, but I do think it is a great book for people -- especially young people -- who have basic philosophical differences with members of their families to read. Eleven-year-old Emma wants to be a lawyer. Unfortunately for her, it's 1974, and her father isn't having any of it. Nor is he willing to allow Emma's seven-year-old brother Willie to pursue his interest in dancing. Their mother, though she sympathises with her children, does not take t...more
i read this as a kid, because i was a louise fitzhugh fan. it came out in '74, so i must have stumbled on it while shelf-browsing at the local public library when i was in junior high. i liked it a lot. the characters in the story have brown skin, but it wasn't a 'plight of the people with brown skin'-book. as one can tell from the title, it really does deal with universals. people with brown skin definitely have a plight worthy of engagement and discussion. but sometimes, just like people with...more
This book was mentioned on a recent This American Life episode, and I had to read it. I know I have wished (and still sometimes do) that my family would (for the love of God) change. This young adult novel really puts it in perspective. Because it's true.
Don't look for any sugar coated endings here. The Emma Sheridan and her younger brother Willie struggle and struggle. But still, as the title says...
In the meantime there's a Children's Army that secretly meets plotting retribution against bad p...more
Don't look for any sugar coated endings here. The Emma Sheridan and her younger brother Willie struggle and struggle. But still, as the title says...
In the meantime there's a Children's Army that secretly meets plotting retribution against bad p...more
Much as I love Harriet the Spy and her friends, this book by Louise Fitzhugh remains my favorite. When I first read it as a child, I couldn't believe that a writer had managed to capture my own father's narcissism, ambition, and self-pity so accurately in a fictional character– especially given the racial difference. To learn that a child could resist and even overcome parental neglect in its middle-class form gave me comfort and inspiration then; the book's message still inspires me now.
This book was first published in 1974, according to the copyright info in the copy I have, and it is showing its age a bit, but the message is still a relevant one for upper grade kids: you can change yourself and how you react to other people and situations, but you probably can't change other people so much. I enjoyed it - enough to start and finish it in one day - unusual for me.
2 likes · like · see review
Like a lot of readers I picked this up because it was mentioned on a recent This American Life. Plus I had been a big fan of Louise Fitzhugh's work when I was younger, having read and re-read Harriet the Spy, The Long Secret, and my personal favorite, Sport. As I read I had to wonder, how did I miss this? It was wonderful and incredibly shocking, in the way that only children's books can be. My one complaint is that there wasn't really enough action to fill the entire book so the discussion beca...more
I think I could write a unit plan for this book. There are so many good discussion points. Fitzhugh shows why sometimes children do things that are self-deprecating. A good read for parents and for children.
This is one weird YA book...is this even for children? I heard about this book on 'This American Life,' and it's definitely not your run-of-the-mill kids' story. And while it's a premise I wholeheartedly embrace -- a brother and sister realize early on that they cannot change who their parents are and how they think, so they must accept this and move on with their own damn lives -- the writing didn't do anything for me. I wanted to finish to find out what happened to the siblings (there's a weir...more
Wow. "Faggot" and being punched in the "hoo-hoo" by the 2nd page? In a children's book? Not hardly.
Jun 11, 2009
Ehbluemle Bluemle
added it
Nobody's family is going to change by Louise Fitzhugh (1974), [1st ed.]
Mar 25, 2010
Carrie
added it
Book I taught with our 6th graders.
Dated in charming ways, very raw and current in others-- a somewhat shockingly adult book written for kids.
look this book is a million times better than this american life. not that i don't like this american life but isn't always so depressing when you have found this amazing thing at a thrift store for 50 cents and loved it and cherished it, and told all your friends about it, only to have this american life tell the whole world about it?
okay, whatever.
reading this book is probably worth 2 years of family therapy.
okay, whatever.
reading this book is probably worth 2 years of family therapy.
Phenomenal! This YA novel tells a story about two siblings growing up in NYC - a girl who wants to be a lawyer and a boy who wants to be a dancer - and their parents, who think boys should be lawyers and girls should be housewives. The characters completely draw you in, and the book comes to a poignant conclusion that manages to be both grim and full of hope. LOVED it.
I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that I picked this title up because I heard about it on "This American Life". I've been struggling a lot lately with established family dynamics, so this book was timely for me. Written in the seventies, this book holds up well and would be a good read for any older kid, say 11ish; I wish I would've read it then.
Sep 19, 2008
dirt
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
All the people that have hurt you
Recommended to dirt by:
This American Life
I tend to dwell on problems instead of moving forward. The lesson from this book is you have to change yourself and your own expectations because you cannot force anyone else to have a life altering epiphany.
This is one of those books I started and then set aside. When I came back to it months later I feel in love with it.
I actually haven't read this yet. Have you Mandy or John? I really like the concept.
May 14, 2013
Jasmine Burroughs
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2013
Igraine
marked it as auf-gar-keinen-fall
Apr 22, 2013
k
marked it as to-read
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| other books like this? | 1 | 5 | Nov 11, 2008 07:07pm |
Born in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended Miss Hutchison's School and three different universities, without obtaining a degree. According to her obituary in the New York Times, Fitzhugh graduated from Barnard College in 1950. She lived most of her adult life in New York City and had houses in both Long Island and Bridgewater, Connecticut.
She was married briefly to Ed Thompson, whom she dated in hig...more
More about Louise Fitzhugh...
She was married briefly to Ed Thompson, whom she dated in hig...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Her room felt wonderful to her, as usual. She looked around with satisfaction… She imagined to herself that she would always live this way, even after she had grown up and moved away from her family. She planned to have exactly the same room wherever she was, because this room was her. No matter what happened out there in the rest of the world, she felt totally comfortable once she got into this room and closed the door.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
On another note, this sentence: "I remember being nervous about carrying it around because of its title, but I wor...more
Mar 21, 2013 02:56pm
On another note, this sentence: "I remember being nervous about carrying it around because of its tit...more
Mar 21, 2013 03:13pm