Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Fiction Series
For ages 6 to 9
Chronicle Books, 2008 ISBN: 978-0811856850
Bean parents are going out to a play, and Bean is going to have a babysitter to stay with her. Bean does not mind this too much until she hears who the babysitter is going to be, her sister Nancy! What could be worse than being babysat by your own eleven-year-old sister? Being forced to stay indoors with said babysitter when the rest of the children in the neighborhood are having a great time playing outside.
Full of righteous indignation, Bean sends out a distress signal to her best friend Ivy. Ivy sneaks into the house and the girls try to find a way to sneak out of the house.  Unfortunately, they don’t have any rope on hand so a rope ladder is out of the question. What else can they do? Surely they are not going to sit around and make things easy for Nancy. No, that would go against everything they believe in. Instead, the girls decide that now would be the perfect time to find out what is in the attic.
This fourth title in the Ivy and Bean series is wonderfully funny, and it will be a perfect fit for children who appreciate characters who have a mind of their own. Annie Barrows is an author who truly appreciates the trials that children are forced to endure at the hands of unsympathetic adults and older siblings.
