Arthur Babysits
Written by Marc Brown
Reviewed by Diamond J. (age 9)
D.W., Arthur's sister, did not want to babysit. Mrs. Tibble was looking for a babysitter for her grandsons, Tommy and Timmy. D.W. told Mrs. Tibble that her brother could probably babysit. Arthur agreed to babysit, and Mrs. Tibble was going to call Arthur's mom to see if he could babysit. When Arthur went home, he asked his mom if he can babysit, and his mom said Yes!
So he saw his friends, and they asked where he was going. Arthur said, "To baby sit the Tibble twins." Francine, Arthur's friend, said, "Don't worry. Just remember how baby Kate and D.W. are when Arthur babysits them."
Arthur goes to Mrs. Tibble's house. When he arrives, Mrs. Tibble says that it's almost bedtime for the twins, Tommy and Timmy. Mrs. Tibble leaves and then the twins get out of control and start acting crazy.
D.W. called Arthur with some advice which was to play a quiet game of cards with the twins. Arthur tried to play cards with them, but the twins continued to act out of control and things got worse.
They played cowboys and Arthur ended up tied up to the chair. The twins got even worse because while Arthur was tied up the twins played hide and seek. Arthur got loose and had trouble finding the twins. Eventually, Arthur found the twins behind the curtains and started to tell a scary story about a swamp thing that is very hungry and likes to eat twin boys.
The twins believed the story and thought that the footsteps in the house that they heard and the shadow that they saw was the hungry swamp thing. It turns out that the shadow was of Mrs. Tibble, who said that Arthur was a great babysitter.
Arthur goes home and tells D.W. that babysitting the twins was not bad and that Mrs. Tibble wants him to babysit again. And D.W. can help.
I like this book because it reminds me of when I babysit my sister. When she is bad, I tell scary stories to scare her so she will behave. I liked the part when the two twins get out of control and take the cards and throw them all over the place. I like this part because sometimes I get mad and throw cards all over the place too. I don't like this book because Author tries to help the two twins and they are just evil to him. It's not fair because Author fixed up the bathtub for them and they are just mean. Most of the parts are funny, but there are some parts that aren't. Marc Brown should make the story more interesting by adding more details.
I think that little kids would like to read this book because if they ever have little sisters, it shows them how to babysit them. This book would be funny to younger kids and not to older kids. Older kids would find this book boring because they are not on a low level of reading. And little kids would find this book interesting because it's easy to read and their parents can help them.