Tuesday, April 03, 2012

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser -- Bringing Up Bebe


Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
I grabbed Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman because I'm obsessed with all things French, and to discover if the French way of parenting was better than the American way. I hope to post a full review soon. Here's the first paragraph:
When my daughter is eighteen months old, my husband and I decide to take her on a little summer holiday. We pick a coastal town that's a few hours by train from Paris, where we've been living (I'm American, he's British), and we book a hotel room with a crib. She's our only child at this point, so forgive us for thinking: How hard could it be?


Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here's my teaser from page 79:
In the 1960s, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget came to America to share his theories on the stages of children's development. After each talk, someone in the audience typically asked him what he began calling The American Question. It was: How can we speed these stages up?

Keep in mind that this quote is not about the stages of grief or cancer, it's the stages of childhood. That question does seem quintessentially American.
I'll end with a photo of Tucker who was two when we traveled to France and I'm sure terrorized the general French population during our three week trip and my American permissive parenting.

11 comments:

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Ha-ha! That look on Tucker's face...priceless.

And I'm laughing at the idea of "how hard can it be?"

Piaget was a big deal back in the day...and when I was having my first kids.

This book is one I'd like to read. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Kayla Beck said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kayla Beck said...

Fantastic teaser! I've been meaning to read that book. Thank you for sharing and stopping by Bibliophilia, Please!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I love this intro, and I'm curious to find out why the French feel their parenting style is better...LOL

Cute picture of Tucker.

JoAnn said...

Love that intro - I'd definitely keep reading!

Nise' said...

Love the picture. I am sure it got a lot hard for the couple on vacation!

Margot said...

Great opening paragraph. I like the first person writing style. I also like the way you made this post personal.

Sandra Nachlinger said...

I'm a new grandmother, and I'd love to read this book! Thank you for introducing me to a new book.
Here's my teaser: http://iousex.blogspot.com/2012/04/teaser-tuesday-apr-3.html

Linda said...

Having lived in France for a while I'm not sure there are that many differences. I see French children having melt downs in public all of the time.

Paulita said...

Linda, Those must be American children!! According to the author

Kristin Aragon said...

So many of us have thought "how hard can it be" over the years. Sadly, much harder, but also much more of a reward, than we ever thought.

I'm slow at returning Tuesday Teaser comments. Thank you for stopping by Better Read Than Dead yesterday. Have a great week.

~Kristin

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