Ivy & Bean Take Care of the Babysitter

Annie Barrows's Ivy & Bean Take Care of the Babysitter is a big-sister story for 7 year olds about the day Nancy gets put in charge.

What happens

It's Saturday, and there's a mound of dirt as high as a porch in Sophie W.'s front garden. Within minutes the whole street has turned it into a volcano, with a hose for lava and a little boy called Isaiah sitting in the crater.

It's the best game ever. And that's exactly when Bean gets called home.

Her parents are off to a play. Leona, the babysitter Bean actually likes, has poison oak. So the job goes to Nancy, who is eleven. Nancy's getting twenty dollars for it, and Bean has to stay indoors where Nancy can keep an eye on her.

"I'm doomed," Bean moans. "I'm double-doomed!"

That's the joy of these books. Bean takes everything SO seriously. She's a prisoner in her own home. She's been betrayed by her own flesh and blood (she says that bit out loud, because it sounds good).

What she really can't stand is Nancy being the grown-up who decides everything. Lots of younger siblings will know that feeling very well.

So Bean makes an SOS flag out of an old vest and waves it out of her window at Ivy. When Ivy doesn't notice, she throws the whole pole at her. Ivy, being Ivy, thinks it might be an alien.

Then the plans get bigger. A rope ladder (Ivy brings string). A daring escape. And, while Nancy is locked in the bathroom trying on Mum's make-up, a climb up the shelves of the airing cupboard to the one place Bean has never been allowed to go.

You can probably see where that's heading. It ends with a LOT of dirt on the towels.

Ivy and Bean are a brilliant pair. Ivy's dreamy and full of strange facts and happily goes along with almost anything. Bean's loud and bossy and full of ideas. And Nancy is a properly realistic big sister, peppy one minute and grumpy the next.

It's set in America, so there are dollars and sidewalks, but nothing that gets in the way. Short chapters too, so it works well read aloud over a couple of bedtimes.

What to read next

This is the fourth Ivy and Bean book, and they don't need reading in order. If they've not met the pair yet, try the very first Ivy & Bean book, where Bean is quite sure the nice girl across the street will be boring.