But It's Not My Fault! (Responsible Me!)

As a Speech Language Pathologist, I work with many social skills groups and am always looking for books that can address these skills. Julia Cook is one of the best authors I have discovered. Her stories are engaging and the characters are very relatable. This book focuses on taking responsibility for our actions rather than blaming someone else.

Given the state of race relations in this country, it was a culturally incompetent choice to use a black male child to represent as someone who is at blame. Black males represent only 7% of the population. What % of her books have a black male as the negative protagonist? More than 7% for sure. For example:

That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me!
Baditude! What to Do When Life Stinks! (Responsible Me!)
That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me! (Responsible Me!)
etc etc

"Preschool teachers and staff show signs of implicit bias in administering discipline, but the race of the teacher plays a big role in the outcome, according to new research. The results help explain why black students tend to be suspended at much higher rates than white students, the authors say." More: [...]

Way to negatively overrepresent black male children in this book. The least the artist and the author could have done was display a variety of types of children in the same book instead of having it only be about this one child. The teachers doesn't always have to be a white female either!

Who should have read this? : Brock Turner. Dylan Roof. James Holmes. Adam Lanza. Jared Loughner. Eric Harris and whole lot more. While males regularly don't have to take much if any responsibility for their actions because they get a pass. This racial representation is a massive FAIL.

Very excited about the book. Unfortunately, the front cover and title page were stuck together when I got it and the title page was ripped when I tried to seperate. The front cover looks like it has been through a backpack or two, it 8s AL rippled and not as nice as I would like for a new book:(

How many times do parents and teachers hear this little phrase, “But it’s not my fault!” Once again in her accomplished way, Ms. Cook addresses solution for a common childhood problem of not wanting to take responsibility for their actions.
Noodle is at it again, being a kid and having trouble blaming everyone else for his mistakes. No matter if his blunders or large or small, they are all someone else’s fault, to the point of being ridiculous! My favorite was when he was called down for interrupting and he said, “But it’s not my fault! My mouth is addicted to talking!” The blame game may seem innocent in a child but if not corrected they grow to be adults who live their lives as victims and are never responsible for any mistakes.
Ms. Cook’s words of insight and wisdom come through Noodle’s Mom. I like the way the story hits at the heart of the problems without having an accusatory tone. This way the children have the opportunity to look at themselves without feeling the need to defend, or blame!! Another favorite point made in the book is “Blaming others is a reason but it’s not an excuse.”
I had my 10 year old granddaughter and 13 year old grandson read the book. When they finished each one had a sheepish look and said, “I do this. . . sometimes”. Both said it helped them see they need to own up for what they do. Also that it affects those around them. Someone could get in trouble for what they falsely accused them of. Plus blame causes conflict and hard feelings among friends and family. At the end are very helpful ideas to guide children in overcoming this bad habit. Engaging vibrant illustrations, sound wisdom, and written from a child’s viewpoint. A great to help children (and it wouldn’t hurt adults to read it either!) Go to [...] to see more of Julia Cook’s amazing books!

Noodle is always forgetting or failing to do things throughout his entire day. And regardless of the obvious, he is never at fault. This story may help kids to recognize their participation, or lack of, in things that go wrong and accept the responsibility for its results.

Excellent book to teach a child about personal responsibility, even in a situation where it seems that other people did things that cause you problems.
The tone, illustrations and wording make this book enticing for a child, so he can't help learning while enjoying an interesting book.
Should be required reading for all politicians. (cough, cough)

I love the main idea and the illustrations are eye-catching, but...the layout (speech bubbles, different fonts, etc.) all on one page makes it difficult for small children to follow. Definitely not a read-to-self - at least not initially.

Julia cook uses black characters as vocal points to address bad behavior in most of her books. Why? we live in a very diverse country so why are 5 out of 7 of the books I've stumbles upon written by Julie addressing this kind of behavior illustrated through black characters ? I'm surprised looking at the reviews that nobody else mentions this and the fact that teachers introduce books like these to children in the classroom saddens me.

My fourth and fifth grade students have very much enjoyed me reading this out loud to them. They laugh but can resonate with the little boy and his antics. We must take responsibility for what we do.