Max and the Baby-sitter
PreSchool-Grade 2-- Since the fact of big buck best-sellerdom carries little weight in children's library selection circles, these jackets' front flaps cozily coax belief in Steel's expertise with the very young by sharing the information that she is the mother of nine. Rogers seems hopelessly indebted to the never-to-be remembered artist of that never-to-be forgotten primer series, Dick and Jane-- updated without a Spot. The messages in each book are the same--children should share their anxieties with their parents, and their parents will do what they please no matter what, with slightly more awareness of how their children are affected by it. Consider Max, who is four years old. He's afraid of babysitter Barbara's cat and is often quite cold at her place. After he tells his parents his troubles, they eventually find another babysitter who keeps a puppy and heats her house by baking cookies. (If Max thinks his mother is going to stay home with him, well, he's got another think coming.) Martha, five years old, seems made of sturdier stuff. She hopes against hope that her divorced parents will return to each other, but Daddy tells it like it is--it's out of the question because, after the divorce, "It took us a long time to get to be friends and I wouldn't do anything to spoil that." (That's certainly one of the more chaotic concepts of adult relations). So, Mommy re-marries, Martha goes along on the Hawaiian honeymoon and, little realist that she is, decides she now has three important people in her life--Mommy, Daddy and the new John. As cures for common causes of nervous wreckage among preschoolers, these are as effective as--sugar pills.- Lillian N. Gerhardt , "School Library Journal"Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.