Lila Said No by Kiki Frayard & Aileen Bennett

Which parent hasn’t had the frustrating experience of being manipulated and possibly even outsmarted by their young children? It is, after all, to be expected as your kids get older and smarter, but being outwitted by an actual child, especially when you’re trying to get them to do things for their own good, is a special kind of bafflement.

Lila is one of these smart four year-olds. A born negotiator, she’s learned that if she just digs in her heels on doing things as basic as eating her meals, getting dressed and taking baths, her parents will bribe her with treats. This is, obviously, the parents’ fault, but you can’t really blame them as (seeming) first-time parents who have yet to learn better.

However, Lila, in the manner of all spoiled children — and again and again, I’ll say that Oompa Loompa refrain: a child can’t spoil herself, you know — keeps stubbornly resisting the smallest things in order to hold out for treats. When her parents have finally had enough, what will they do to help restore sanity to their household?

Spoiler: they do the smart thing instead of the easiest thing and, by the end, everyone is the better for it. And here’s the thing, this book is as much for parents as it is for kids. There really isn’t an all-encompassing manual for raising children, and we have to take our lessons where we get them. Lila Said No is a very helpful primer for parents dealing with obstinate offspring, as well as a useful fable for kids going through that mulish stage themselves.

The art is super cute and expressive, punctuating the text well, tho I did wonder whether we needed quite so many instances depicting a barely clothed Lila running around. My kids sure did enjoy streaking through the house naked at that age, and while it’s often hilarious to see bare butts depicted in kids’ books — as in David Shannon’s No, David! books — even my nudity-positive self raised an eyebrow at the sheer frequency here.

That quirk aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a four year-old locking wits with her parents, and how they finally resolved their conflicts so that everyone was happy and healthy at the end. I was impressed that this was Kiki Frayard’s debut kids’ book, as it’s both assured and well-paced. Hopefully, it’s the first of many more.

Lila Said No by Kiki Frayard & Aileen Bennett was published October 25 2024 by Susan Schadt Press and is available from all good booksellers, including