Clarice Bean, Guess Who's Babysitting?

It took me a while to realize, but the Clarice Bean books all read very all over the place, sort of like Clarice Beans life, I originally thought this particular series was just poorly written, but i realized the all the chaos has a reason. This book is a retelling of the time that Clarice's uncle Ted had to babysit. Usually when Uncle Ted babysits, things get broken and children get neglected. This time, the kids mother tells Uncle Ted of all the house rules before she leaves. For a change, everyone i the house is following the rules and everyone is being nice to one another. Then the youngest brother decides to let the school genie pig that he's caring for over break out of his cage and everything goes downhill from there. Eventually, show more the mother comes back and everything is ok. Although I understand why the book is written the way it is written, I still don't particularly like the Clarice Beans books that much. Maybe children and students find the books investing, but I do not. show less

Clarice is thrilled. It's an Emergency and no one is available to babysit except her Uncle Ted, a very cool person. He promises things will be fine, but even with Mom's "Very Strict Instructions" things just don't work out as expected. Which is fine with Clarice Bean!

Lauren Child's collage illustrations and wacky text design mingle perfectly for a humorous story about family disasters and a missing guinea pig. Lauren Child perfectly captures the excitement and fun of Uncle Ted and Clarice's despair when she loses Albert the guinea pig.

I've been asked to get more Clarice Bean books for our library (this is the only one we own) and I'm willing, except I'm confused as to which are picture books and which are chapter books. I'm not sure we show more need another realistic girl beginning chapter book series, since we already have tons of Ramona, Clementine, Judy Moody, Alice, Lucy Rose, and others.

Verdict: I'm going to read the rest of the books in this series. If they're as funny and delightful as this one, then they're a definite must.

ISBN: 0763613738; Published March 2001 by Candlewick; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library show less

I like Lauren Child's stuff. I like her Charlie & Lola books, and I like the Clarice Bean books I've read. This one has a cute firefighter uncle and a lost class pet (hamster? guinea pig?) and hilarity, and was fun.

I like Lauren Child's stuff. I like her Charlie & Lola books, and I like the Clarice Bean books I've read. This one has a cute firefighter uncle and a lost class pet (hamster? guinea pig?) and hilarity, and was fun.

Very silly, and I do like the art. Told in a certain voice, almost deadpan. Honestly, though, four kids is just asking for trouble.

Each story in Lauren Child’s Clarice Bean series have been cute and appropriate for the age group she is aiming for. I find this story and others I have read to be funny. The illustration to be colorful and amusing in the way they are drawn. The only thing I find distracting is the way her words run around the page. In this story, in particular I find some of the pages hard to read unless I rotated the book around to read it. Children will probably enjoy it manipulating the book around while they are reading it. If it were to be used it in a read aloud it may be difficult to read unless you use an ELMO. At the end of the story, I was left with one question. What happened to the Guinea Pig?

This book made me think of the movie Uncle Buck, although a fireman is certainly much more cool than John Candy. It is basically the story of a crazy uncle coming to babysit, and everything seems fine, until Albert escapes. A fun adventure for just about any age of child.