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
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Robie H. Harris received her M.A.T. from Bank Street College of Education and her A.B. from Wheaton College. Now an award-winning, full-time writer, Robie H. Harris has published fifteen books for toddlers to teens, including HAPPY BIRTH DAY!, HI NEW BABY!, and HELLO BENNY!, all illustrated by Michael Emberley, as well as GOODBYE MOUSIE, illustrated by Jan Ormerod. In addition to her writing, Robie H. Harris is a popular speaker around the country on topics such as "Using Children’s Books to Talk About the Questions and Concerns of Children." In DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK!, Ms. Harris’s aim was to address a genuine concern of children — being left at home with a babysitter — with warmth and honesty.
Harry Bliss grew up in upstate New York in a family of successful painters and illustrators, so it wasn’t any surprise that he, too, went on to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and illustration at the University of the Arts and Syracuse University. He has illustrated numerous book covers and is a cartoonist and cover artist for THE NEW YORKER magazine. In the tradition of so many NEW YORKER cartoonists, Harry Bliss has illustrated several children’s books, among them A FINE, FINE SCHOOL by Sharon Creech, WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE? by William Steig, and COUNTDOWN TO KINDERGARTEN by Alison McGhee.
