Marge in Charge

Isla Fisher's Marge in Charge is a giggly babysitter story for 6 year olds, starring a grown-up so small she only comes up to Dad's armpit.

What happens

Jemima Button is seven and the tallest girl in her class. Her little brother Jakeypants is four. Jake has two rules. No hair washing (it's boring) and no broccoli, not ever.

So when their parents go out for dinner, any babysitter has a job on her hands. Then Marge arrives, in a yellow woolly hat and with a very serious face. Jake's first question is whether she's a kid or a grown-up.

The minute the car's gone, off comes the hat. Underneath is long hair in every colour of the rainbow! She says she's a duchess with ten pets, including an albino water buffalo.

There's a list of rules on the fridge, and Marge adds a few royal ones of her own. Bath time comes before dinner. The puppy gets chopsticks. Chocolate soup is the starter. Who wouldn't want a babysitter like that? (And the broccoli? Let's just say a cardboard bus is involved.)

Jemima tells the story, and that's where most of the laughs come from. She's the sensible one. She's thrilled by Marge and scared stiff of getting into trouble, often in the same minute. When she spots the clock at five to eight, with Marge snoring in Dad's armchair and the house a disaster zone, you feel that panic right along with her!

Next Marge takes them to Theo's fifth birthday party. Jemima packs a book in case nobody plays with her, which is a feeling plenty of kids will know. Then the rain comes, and Marge becomes Magical Marge the Magician in the bounce castle.

Her tall tales are half the fun. A meerkat count who rescued her from a giant bubble. Floating across the city tangled in fifty balloons, with everyone seeing her underwear. Their parents laugh, thinking she's joking. Jemima and Jakey know better.

The big shouty words (SPLISH! SPLASH! SPLOSH!) make it brilliant for reading aloud, and plenty of pictures help a child reading alone. It's the American text, so expect Mommy, sneakers and a bounce castle.

If your reader loves a grown-up who's naughtier than the kids, this is a treat.

What to read next

And if they want more of the Buttons, Marge and the Pirate Baby brings round Aunt Sally's baby Zara, the cousin Jemima hasn't met yet here. By then Zara can crawl, and Jemima is sure she's much naughtier than she looks.