Publisher Comments:

With warmth, empathy, and a healthy dose of hilarity, Robie H. Harris and Harry Bliss capture the many emotions children feel when parents go out--and a babysitter comes in!

Guess what? The babysitter is coming!

That means:

1. Mommy and Daddy are going out

2. the feisty heroine of this book is not going out . . .

3. and she doesn't like that one bit!

Parents, kids, and babysitters alike will relate to--and laugh at--this all-too-familiar tale, wisely and wittily penned by an expert in child development and brought wickedly to life with detailed illustrations by a noted New Yorker cartoonist.

Synopsis:

Parents, kids, and babysitters alike will relate to--and laugh at--this all-too-familiar tale, wisely and wittily penned by an expert in child development and brought wickedly to life with detailed illustrations by a noted New Yorker cartoonist. With warmth, empathy, and a healthy dose of hilarity, Robie H. Harris and Harry Bliss capture the many emotions children feel when parents go out--and a babysitter comes in!

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2--Harris takes on separation anxiety and leavens it with lots of humor. The story is told by a girl whose parents are dressing up for a night on the town. First, she tries reasoning with them ("1. I am NOT a baby. 2. I'm a BIG kid. 3. So I do NOT need a stupid babysitter!"), and then threatening them ("…if you go out tonight, the biggest baddest moose will walk into the kitchen--and eat me all up!"). Her parents stay calm, the sitter arrives, Mom and Dad leave, and the resolution builds gradually (and happily) from there. Bliss's beautifully executed watercolor cartoons are a perfect foil for this comic tale; they are understated, friendly, and deceptively simple. Harris draws a fine line with the parents' attitude and succeeds admirably; they listen to their daughter without any impatience or anger, yet not even the youngest listeners will think there's a chance they'll stay home. This story reassures children that someone will always be there, that their parents will come back when they say they will, and that the adults--not their offspring--are ultimately in charge. Getting this message across without undermining a youngster's self-respect is a real feat, and gives this book on a familiar topic a fresh tone.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 2. Amusing, sly new illustrations enliven this reprint of a 1978 title. When a little girl's father announces that he and the child's mother are going out for the evening, the girl uses a variety of strategies to dissuade her parents. She offers to go with them, packing her essentials, including ballet shoes and monster book. She threatens dire calamities in their absence--storms, illness, and even a random moose attack. Then hip, easy-going babysitter Sarah arrives, and the child ends up having a lovely evening, sprinkling pickles on her pizza and applying clown makeup. In the morning, she's delighted to find that her parents have indeed returned home, and she wakes them with kisses. Harris' playful, rhythmic text, written in the defiant heroine's voice, skillfully conveys a child's attempt to mask fear and discomfort with blustering protests, and Bliss' winning ink-and-watercolor drawings add clever humor and spot-on details from a child's viewpoint. Many children will see themselves in the anxious girl as she tries to command her distracted parents' attention.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Gillian Engberg

Book Dimension

Height (mm) 277 Width (mm) 253