Review: Amusing and entertaining
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2013
This is the sort of book you read for a little light entertainment. You can't take the story seriously as it's just silly, but you get the feeling the author knows it's silly and meant for it to be that way.Cathy was babysitting triplets when their mother disappeared, leaving the babies in Cathy's care. Cathy has 3 young children of her own, which means she now is caring for 6 children. A rough-sounding man keeps phoning the house looking for the triplets' mother, and he refuses to believe that Cathy doesn't know where the lady is. In an attempt to scare him off, Cathy fibs that she's living next door to a cop. The man replies, "That cop can't be with you all the time, lady. That moment will come when he's looking the other way. And then... pow!""Pow?" she squeaked back. "What does that mean?""You'll find out. Better watch out! Better have the paramedics on call, lady! Pow!"See what I mean? Silly, and because it's so silly, it's hilarious. I'm not sure how the author does it.Cathy's youngest, Beanie, was my favourite character. Just old enough to walk but not old enough to speak, all he ever says is, "Aga doo." He somehow knows to say it at all the right moments, which is inexpressibly cute!Scott, who lives next door to Cathy, claims to be allergic to children, but can't stay away from Cathy. Eventually they go on a road trip -- with all the six children -- to search for the triplets' mother. Does Scott survive the trip with his sanity intact? Do all the children survive the trip? Do they find the triplets' mother? You'll have to read the book to find out ;)I'm giving this story 3 stars because, while it was entertaining and fun to read, it didn't exactly make a huge impression or linger on in my mind after I'd finished it. It's the sort of thing that you read and chuckle over and then forget. The comic nature of the writing meant there was no tension or sense of urgency; for example, I could never feel that Cathy or the children were really in danger from The Bad Man. The resolution of the main problem (the triplets' missing mother) felt like an anticlimax. Overall, I would recommend it to people who want to read something light, but it's not a keeper because it's not the type of story I'd read again and again.