Raised By Wolves

I was provided an advance copy of Were You Raised By Wolves by Christie Mellor through the Parent Bloggers Network for review. You may already be familiar with Mellor's earlier work, The Three Martini Playdate.

My initial thoughts as I read the opening chapters of Raised By Wolves were that the publication of this book is proof of the decline of western civilization, and while that fact may still be true, it is also true that this book was an entertaining (if not personally educational) read.

Raised By Wolves is written to provide life lessons to young adults who were not taught skills (or never listened to them) by their parents or caregivers in (what I consider at least to be) common sense areas. The book contains meticulous instructions (some with diagrams) on how to do such common tasks as make a bed, clean a bathroom, tidy a room, or do laundry. There are also useful tips related to etiquette, such as not wearing one's lip piercing at the office if you took it out for the interview, or avoiding exposing one's thong above their pants line at work, or that men should look in a woman's eyes and not her chest when speaking with her (who knew?). The book contains useful hints and tips too: don't get a haircut immediately after a breakup, prepare some sort of budget or financial plan, and develop decent penmanship. (Some of the tips, such as decorating a Christmas tree with Q-tip snowflakes and dental floss garland, were a little "out there" for my tastes.) Sprinkled in and among the lessons that I was shocked to discover needed teaching were some useful tidbits that I did not know (such as the amazing powers of mayonnaise or how to tie a bow tie).

It may sound like I disliked the book, but the truth is quite the opposite. It was funny, and entertainingly written. Mellor has an engaging style that makes you feel like you're reading a (really long) letter from a friend rather than (self help? educational? informational?) book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and plan to share some of these insights with my 29-going-on-15 year old sister in law.