This series is always fun - a nice little gift for any parent in your life and a good addition to the selection of, ahem, *light reading* areas of your home. This sounds bougie as hell, but if I had a guest room with books for visitors this series would be prominently displayed.

Parenting Advice to Ignore in Art and Life by Nicole Tersigni is currently scheduled for release on August 22 2023. From the author of the Men to Avoid in Art and Life and Friends to Keep in Art and Life comes a collection of all-too-familiar unsolicited advice parents receive on the daily. From in-laws and other parents to complete strangers and even your own kids—when it comes to parenting, everyone's a critic. Against the classic backdrop of fine art, bestselling author Nicole Tersigni's Parenting Advice to Ignore in Art and Life pokes fun at the many "experts" who think they know more than you about your own children. Utterly (and unfortunately) relatable and hilarious as ever, Tersigni's spot-on captions provide a much-needed laugh for anyone who has had the pleasure of parenting and the pain of having a stranger tell you to put a hat on your baby.

Parenting Advice to Ignore in Art and Life is a fun and entertaining read for parents, and a great gift for those expecting or planning on becoming parents. The pairing of the unwanted advise and comments with classic art is very well done and will be relatable to most if not all parents. I enjoyed the read and think it is well worth a look for a couple laughs and to bring home the fact that all parents get these kinds of comments, you are very far from alone in hearing any of these kinds of comments.

Thank you Netgalley and Chronicle books for this arc.

Whether it’s from your family —

“Pick up your baby the second he cries.”
“Even if you’re asleep”
“Or on the toilet”
“Or not there.”

“You call that swaddling? If I wrapped a burrito like that at Chipotle, I’d get fired.”

or Strangers —

“Not to brag, but our son was chosen for day care line leader. His teacher says he’s so good at bossing the other kids around. What has your kid done?”

or Experts —

“You should feed your kid organic, homemade meals. A single Cheeto will destroy his brain.”

Or even your own kids —

“Grandma says if you didn’t yell at us so much, you wouldn’t have so many gray hairs.”

“But your room isn’t clean either.”

So many people have got something to say about your parenting skills. Or lack thereof. Check out the latest melding of art plus awful things that people will tell you but which you never asked to hear. B

I love getting new Nicole Tersigni books, because they are fresh, smart and fun. Not to mention comic relief from my daily grind. Her trademark style is to take old world paintings, or portions of them, and attach modern day captions, attributing them to the characters in the artwork. Only she does it well.

This latest one is titled Parenting Advice to Ignore in Art and Life. It is, as usual, a small collection of full page prints, with captions overlaid. It can be read in 10 minutes.

This one is very focused, which means the audience will be narrower. It is clearly aimed at young, upper middle class urban mothers, for whom the whole book is a vast in-joke. There are references to helicopter parenting, breastfeeding advice from strangers, the latest in parenting theories, and back talk from children. Young mothers will smirk while reading it. Occasionally, one will burst out laughing at one plate that really strikes home for her.

Sometimes, the captions will refer to bad painting, such as when babies are hugely outsized compared to others in the scene. Mostly, the paintings are a bad reflection of 18th and 19th century European art, with forced poses and postures, resembling nothing in real life. One annoying stylistic tic is to make babies appear to be adult midgets, properly proportioned tiny adults, as opposed to real children. But Tersigni doesn’t comment on that. She doesn’t have to.

Over all, it was fun, but on the forced side.

David Wineberg

Pub date: 8/22/23
Genre: art history, humor
Quick summary: Every parent gets plenty of bad, unsolicited advice - these art/advice pairings will help you laugh through the pain.

I'm not a parent, but I know plenty of parents and have seen them get large amounts of unwanted advice, so I thought I might enjoy this book. I did chuckle at some of the pages, and new parents will probably find this a fun gift. My main complaints are similar to how I've felt about the earlier books in the series - the art doesn't necessary match the text and the content seems a bit repetitive. That being said, I still enjoyed the quick read!

Thank you to Chronicle Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It was funny, I think it would be a great gift for a soon to be parent. As someone without kids, it's good to see what parents want to NOT hear haha, even though these people clearly can't read social cues. The images were great and went with the quotes really well. The ones about strangers weren't much "funny haha", more "funny-audacious"

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read that made me giggle. I don't have children of my own, but I've been a nanny for a good portion of my life so I can relate as a nanny and as a friend of people who are parents. This is a niche comedy book - it was my type of humor. I loved how the real art matched up with the sayings pretty perfectly. It felt a little long, but it was worth it to read the entire book because I found the last section of "Family" to be the most humorous. It would make a great coffee table for the right people.

A humorous book that pairs famous art pieces with unwanted advice for parents. The unwanted advice appears to be explaining what is really occurring in these art pictures. This book will definitely give any parent a laugh as it is spot on in the things people have no fear of saying. However, it was shorter than expected and sometimes the advice didn't match up perfectly with the art it was paired with. A fun read nonetheless!

This is the type of book I want to buy every girl who is having a baby shower. Hilarious, highly memeable.
As a mom I feel this

I want a framed print of every single page in this book! I love the concept of layering current "advice," societal norms, and realities of parenthood over fine art, with a side of snarky humor.

I loved the author's first book, "Men to Avoid in Art and Life" (2020), and was hoping this would be as good. Unfortunately it missed the funny mark for me ... I think what made the first book so great is that the quotes/dialogue was not that dissimilar from actual things I have heard people say in real life, but the quotes in "Parenting Advice" seem a bit too far from reality to me ... But maybe this is because I'm not a parent!

I thought that this was a cute, light read and loved how the author combined art with quirky, unsolicited advice. I found the advice to be both funny and relatable. Definitely a funny book I would look to when frustrated with either strangers or family members when they try to butt into my business.

Parenting advice to ignore in art and parenting was entertaining, but not the humor I was expecting. I appreciate the sentiment behind the attempt, it just fell flat for me. I did smile a few times, but was hoping for more comedic approach. If you enjoy satire that pokes fun at parenting stereotypes then you’ll probably enjoy this.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

I found this even more enjoyable than Nicole Tersigni’s previous titles. I love the mix of high-and low-brow and the selection of paintings is spot on. Tersigni has a knack for calling out the ridiculousness we all face every day and Parenting Advice to Avoid in Art and Life is scarily accurate. I will be slipping a copy in every baby shower gift from here on out.

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as the first two by Tersigni. The artwork the author chose is interesting and I'm sure I've heard many similar comments about my parenting. This would be a good gift book for new parents.

This is the third book of this kind that I've read, and like the others, it's packed with humorous quotes and beautiful artwork. Some of the quotes were more funny than others, but what I particularly liked is the list of the art contained in the book. That list would have been better if a brief description was included about each painting.

A fun, quick read...perfect for a quiet/rainy afternoon.

Thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for this advanced copy, which I voluntarily read and reviewed.

Nicole Tersigni’s “Parenting Advice to Ignore in Art and Life” is an amusing book that pairs fine art with funny captions. The images primarily feature mothers, children, and what could be unsolicited advice-givers, while the words are pieces of unhelpful knowledge sometimes shared with parents unprompted by strangers, family members, other parents, so-called experts, and kids. A few pages were not entertaining and a couple were stretches as matches, but for the most part this is a fun read. A great gift for a baby shower or Mother’s Day, especially if the mom is an art lover.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. My review was posted online on June 13, 2023 to Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5617669817.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
The title of this book made me laugh so I figured (correctly) that this would be a fun book. I'm not into art, especially old stuff, but the photos paired with the comments made for a funny book. This would be a good gift to moms.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this free e-ARC.

The book is humorous and I enjoyed the creativity of placing the quotes on relevant pieces of art. It goes to show that these people have been around since the beginning.

Pros: I loved Friends to Keep in Art and Life and was thrilled to see the author had a new book that combines historical art with modern humor in a meme-like way. (In my review for Friends to Keep I mentioned that I wanted more books like this!) This book is also a great social commentary on the ridiculous things that people say to parents and how many of those things reinforce gender stereotypes. I thought this book was hilarious and want to gift it to friends who are parents and at baby showers. One of my favorite things about this book is that it includes an art credits section at the end that names the work and the artist and also shared the location of the work of art!

Cons: None! I hope there are even more books in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read this book.