Adult Child of Hippies
The cover of Adult Child of Hippies is priceless. For anyone who started out life in the 1960s or 1970s, a version of this photograph of a mostly-naked, preadolescent girl sporting a flower in her mouth probably exists in the family album.
Willow Yamauchi is banking on the fact that the rest of the book will resonate with readers just as strongly. A funny, inspired work in the vein of Jeff Foxworthy’s You Might be a Redneck…, Yamauchi’s humor will help you come to terms with whether or not you were raised by wolves... er, hippies. Each page contains a simple phrase such as “You breast-fed until grade school.” The facing page has a vintage photograph of a real-life flower-child to bring back memories.
There are 144 statements for the reader to identify with, become horrified by, or both. There is extra credit available. For example, you get one point for noting that you practiced yoga daily as a child, but you get a bonus point if your family did it while naked. At the end of the book is a breakdown of scores and the author’s tongue-in-cheek assessment of just how far you’ve distanced yourself from your hippie roots.
I found myself laughing out loud many times as I made my way through the book and it will definitely occupy a place on my bookshelf that is easy to find so that when I have other “flower children” over for dinner we can thumb through it and relive our childhoods. Even if you don’t think you were a child of hippies, Willow Yamauchi’s book might give you a reason to treat the rest of us with a little more compassion in light of what we had to endure growing up during the Woodstock Era.
Written by: Kari O’Driscoll, February 13th 2011
This looks great, I'll have to find it. Thanks!! Reminds me of Wild Child, a book edited by Chelsea Cain that came out maybe ten years ago?
I remember wishing I WAS raised by hippies at one time. I had the greatest yellow floral bell bottom pants. I'll have to check this book out.
Hi Kari, Thank you for this groovy review of my book! It's all true, and many of the pictures are from my family, with the others being from other friends and ACOH (Adult Children of Hippies.) I'm just developing a radio program looking into the "hippie scene" in more depth-it's pretty cool to see that the interest is there.
Energy can't be destroyed-it just changes, right? Peace to you, Willow Adult Child of Hippies
Great review, Kari! You always make me want to run out and read whatever book you're talking about right this minute. This book is no exception.
You're right, the cover is priceless! As usual, a great review that makes me want to write down the title of the book to go after it next time I go to a bookstore. It sounds pretty fun!
Thanks, all! I really enjoyed this book and hope you do, too.
What a hoot! I was a young mom during this time, and while we were not hippies, we were closer to that side of the spectrum than many of the other parents in our small town. I am sure our older daughter would get a kick out of this book. In fact, she might see bits of her own parenting in the pages!