Babymouse: Bad Babysitter

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: June 23, 2015

Review

With shots of pink in an otherwise black & white world, Babymouse graphic novels are beloved reading materials for grade 1-4 readers. If you have the first 18 Babymouse books, you will definitely want to add this one. If you have no Babymouse books, you can add them as you can as they do stand alone pretty well. The text is spare and written in all capital print letters; this helps emerging readers who tend to stumble with lowercase letters, yet it is not distracting for older readers. Babymouse has a rich imagination and the inserted scenes where the pictures illustrate some outlandish situations are hilarious, i.e. her homework-eating, make-her-late-for-class locker, or zombies showing up at the front door as she is babysitting. Babymouse tries so hard but she finds herself a bit out of her depth as she starts her babysitting career (all to earn that "Sooper Scooter"). In the end, Babymouse does figure out how to get the job done, making a real difference in one little owl's life. AND she earns enough to buy that scooter, which she loves all the more because she earned it herself. There is a great message and lots of zany Babymouse fun.

Overall Book Score: very good