A Bad Case of Stripes

As a Licensed Professional Counselor I have sat down with parents and worked with children in panic over this book. The images are disturbing. In the book the young girl comes down with the sickness of the stripes, everyone laughs at her because of them, she's asked to leave the school, she's then "squeezed and jabbed, tapped and tested" with the medical specialists. After ruling out virus and multiple diseases, "Each so-called cure only added to poor Camilla's strange appearance until it was hard to even recognize her." She then melts into the walls of her room with disturbing images. The message is confusing to children and the images are disturbing. Please consider holding off on this book until children are much older. I do not recommend this book to be read in elementary schools or with young children.

My first memory I have of this is book is of me stealing my sister's copy from our shared bookshelf and hiding it in my room, so I could keep it for myself. I loved it that much. I couldn't remember why I loved it so much until revisited it as an adult. I was not only addicted to the fun colors, but I also loved the meaning behind this story. The story is about a girl named Camilla Cream who is afraid of liking things that her friends don't like. So, she gets taught a lesson by having pattern-changing skin. When she goes to school after figuring out she is not physically ill, she finds that everyone laughs at her. Her skin patterns ends up dramatizing what's its like for people to laugh at you, even when you're different. It teaches kids that no matter what, not everyone is going to like you or your choices, but it's worth it to just be yourself. I feel like this is a fantastic lesson to engrain in kids' heads early because once they hit middle school, being liked by everyone usually becomes top priority. Thinking back on my own middle school life though, I never seemed to care what people thought of my wardrobe choices. I felt confident (most of the time) and enjoyed being gawked at in the halls for wearing odd things. They weren't super weird clothing, it was just different. I'm going to pretend like this book helped me become who I am today and who knows, maybe it did.

Bought this for my 5 year old we're trying to teach to read. She is obsessed with doctors and medicine so it was an easy pick. To be clear, I love the message of being true to yourself and tuning out the judgments of others. But this book contains FIVE doctors and TWO "experts" and ALL SEVEN ARE MALE. Gross. Like...beyond gross. I'm not altogether sorry I bought it because she's enjoying it and we just use it as a chance to talk about our beloved female doctors and dentists (and female friends who are doctors and dentists and scientists), but seriously. We might have to take a marker to this and turn them all into women.

My daughter's teacher read this to her class, my daughter loved it she decided to be Camilla for Book Character day.

I love this story. My kids want me to read it over and over again. It's a fun adventure about a girl named Camille who loves lima beans. She doesn't want to be made fun of for liking lima beans so she doesn't eat them. In doing so, she starts to have weird, colorful, and crazy things happen to her body. In the end, she realizes it's better to be herself.

I highly recommend this book. I read it to my 2nd grade class for the first time this year, and they were very engaged. They laughed at the funny parts and showed empathy where most people would show empathy, and it led to some great discussions. I think this would be a great addition to any primary school classroom. The pictures are bright and colorful, and the kids tend to love David Shannon books anyway.

This book scared my granddaughter

A great book to add to your home or classroom library. Although I do not agree with parts of the story, like her being kicked out of school for being distracting. The core message is good... which is be true to yourself because if you become everything everyone else tells you to be you won’t even recognize yourself.

This is such a wonderful book. Colourful, fun and a little unusual. Yes it's American, so you have to explain what lima beans are and why on earth they're standing up pledging allegiance to a flag! It's a good starting point for talking to your child about being themself and not necessarily having to fit in with the crowd. If you've got a child who is feeling "different" in a negative way then also read Max Lucado's You are Special (really helped my godson when he was diagnosed with dyslexia.) Enjoy!

My 7 year olds favourite book, such a good story about being yourself and listening to your feelings. My son has Aspergers and this book really appealed to him. He loved the pictures and really took a lot from the book about trying to talk about how your feeling rather than fighting against those feelings. Loved this book, it was good for our family.

Nice book, delivered on time and good quality.

Great buy awesome service. I am in love with this book so much. Great for kids, though I myself bought it for me, Guess I am a big kid and I love the illustrations , highly recommend it, as it teaches a child to be themselves in a funny and creative way. Great buy x

important developmental story about not following the crowd. An American book so lots of U.S themes in that Uk kids might not get