Guess Who's Babysitting?
 Lauren Child
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Candlewick Press
  ISBN: 0763613738


Mom & Dad have to go away for a few days. Who would be willing to take on irrepressible Clarice Bean, her pesky brother Albert, & their school's guinea pig?

Mom's brother, the Policeman, has slipped on a doughnut & hurt his legs. He needs help, & fast. So sis must find someone to cover for her two youngest children, precocious Clarice & abstruse Albert. What a duo! Both of them about as irritating, curious & amusing children as ever can be found, caged-up in a city's apartments.

Inside of Guess Who's Babysitting? is a kernel of contention. Don't get me wrong, Lauren Child's book is a delight, however, were my elder children to refuse to babysit their younger sibs in a time of family emergency, those older offspring would be smarting. Yes, I know, the family hierarchy has been turned on its head of late -- now teenagers are the proverbial 600lb gorillas in the sitting room, while parents are tiptoeing around in apoplexies of apologia. Still...it irked me something fierce. Unbidden came the quip: “& they expect to be unconditionally supported through their college years?”

Get beyond that artifice (Clarice Bean could have had no older siblings) & you're in for a grand ride through the cacophony of a clan. Who will babysit these two wired youngsters? The only one up to the job is Uncle Ted, the Fireman.

This is a wild & funny read, with a poignant edge to it since our experiences of 9/11 & our refreshed feelings about our firemen & policemen.

While I realize Lauren Child thinks she is "only" writing children's books, she has in fact composed a mazurka to mayhem -every inch of the book is covered with the story's drawings & text.

Uncle Ted gives that couple of cherubim a run for their money, keeping up with them, confounding them & simply being the best babysitter imaginable. Before you know it the calamity is calmed & Mom returns.

& Uncle Ted? He says he'd rather fight fires!

Lauren Child's artwork is astonishing! Vividly detailed & as fascinating as the text, which is tongue-twistingly mind-boggling!

All round a great family read!

Lauren Child came to writing & illustrating her books for children quite a while after graduating from art school & dabbling in all sorts of other media. Then Clarice Bean, girlchild extraordinaire, arrived in her life. Lauren Child's Clarice Bean, That's Me won an IRA Children's Choices Award & was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. She also wrote: I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato
(08/11/02)

Rebecca