How Lazy Can You Get?

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

With strict, old-fashioned Hildegarde Brasscoat hired to baby-sit them, Timothy, Ann, and Douglas John Megglethorp gear up for some super troublemaking. By the author of Night Cry. Reprint. H. K.

Genres: Fiction

56 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1979

About the author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana, US on January 4, 1933.

Her family were strongly religious with conservative, midwestern values and most of her childhood was spent moving a lot due to her father's occupation as a salesman.

Though she grew up during the Depression and her family did not have a lot of money, Naylor stated that she never felt poor because her family owned good books. Her parents enjoyed reading stories to the children--her father would imitate the characters in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer--and her mother read to them every evening, "almost until we were old enough to go out on dates, though we never would have admitted this to anyone."

By the time Phyllis reached fifth grade, writing books was her favorite hobby and she would rush home from school each day to write down whatever plot had been forming in her head - at sixteen her first story was published in a local church magazine.

Phyllis has written over 80 books for children and young people. One of these books, "Shiloh," was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1992, was named a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association and was also Young Adult Choice by the International Reading Association.

Naylor gets her ideas from things that happen to her or from things she has read. "Shiloh" was inspired by a little abused dog she and her husband found. The little dog haunted her so much that she had to write a story about him to get it out of her mind.

Reviews

[Jrobert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids scholastic book from 1979 about a parental trip and the kids are left with the babysitter, Miss Brasscoat, for a week. Enjoyable and silly read as some words we adults use are taken literally by the kids.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a sweet little book. It had some good vocabulary words in it that would make it a good teacher read aloud book. The story didn’t have a huge development, and each chapter was basically written in the same format. But I will say I enjoyed reading it.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute kids chapter book. Made us laugh.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a perfectly adequate children's book - it was even good enough that I will keep it around to see if my son will read it. But it did not earn a place on my shelves.