Baby Tamer

by Mark Teague

The noisy and clever Eggmont kids, otherwise known as a baby-sitter's worst nightmare, meet their match in Amanda Smeedy, baby tamer. By the author of Pigsty.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Poetry

32 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1997

About the author

Mark Teague has delighted young readers with more than 20 picture books, and he has written many of them himself, including the popular Pigsty, Baby Tamer, and One Halloween Night. He is also the illustrator of Cynthia Rylant's beloved Poppleton series for beginning readers and the best-selling books by Jane Yolen, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight and How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon.

Mark Teague's life changed when he moved from San Diego to New York City and he planted the seed for his first picture book, The Trouble with the Johnsons. Each of Teague's books start as "notebooks full of sketches and scribbles, strange little drawings and phrases that suddenly come together," Teague explains. And although he had no formal writing training, his endless imagination and understanding nature gives him a permanent place in the hearts of everyone.

Mark and his wife live in Coxsackie, New York, with their young daughter Lily, who has a great time watching her dad paint the pictures in his books.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A trio of unholy terrors tries to unnerve the world's calmest babysitter in this cute story of an unperturbed child minder. Teague's illustrations are top-notch, as always, though the text was unimpressive in this one.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amanda reminds me of what it is like to be a junior high school teacher. She is patient and lets the kids run their energy out, while not giving them the reaction that they want. But what poor parents they have!

[Delicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre:Fiction, Picture book,

Audience:

Topics: Babysitting, circus, pranks,

Theme: creativity, imagination

Use; Read Aloud, Guided reading

Reading Level: Late transitional/early fluent

Illustrations: The pictures are very bright and colorful and work extremely well with the text to bring the story to life.

Literary Elements: Rhyming,

Baby Tamer is the story of Amanda Smeedy, the babysitter who "tamed the children." In the story, the children engage in a series of increasingly elaborate and imaginative pranks to incite a reaction from the babysitter. These pranks include loud noises, various animals, circus acts, and dare-devil stunts. Throughout the pranks, Amanda acts unimpressed to avoid giving the children the reaction they desire. In the end, the children fall asleep, worn out from their many pranks. Amanda then reveals that she was impressed with their pranks.

I would rank this as a book for very advanced transitional readers/early fluent readers. The words are mostly common vocabulary words but there is a lot of text on each page. The text is also shaped differently on each page and located on a different section of each page. The text is also black words on a dark, colored background.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baby Tamer reminds me all too well of a few households I've babysat for. Sometimes it really seems like a circus instead of a bunch of kids.

As Amanda, the brave babysitter, walks into the house, she sees Clarabelle, Zeke, and Baby Lurleen playing in a three-piece band. They are crazy! (But of course, Amanda seems unimpressed.) The kids have plans for mischief that include dumping octopus in the bath, putting penguins in the freezer, and jumping over chairs on a tricycle. But each time the kids think of another stunt, Amanda says she's seen better pranks. The children ultimately get completely worn out and become too tired to move.

I love this silly, rhyming story of a crazy babysitting experience. The text runs wildly across the page, and the illustrations are wonderful. I would recommend this to any children who love great stories!

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

And here we have what I like to call a "filler" book. Filler books are published books written by a well known author that are not up to par. Hence them being used as a "filler" for the "real" books.
The Eggmont kids? Really? And what is on the babysitters head? A triangle? A pyramid? An upside down funnel? What is with this?

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading this book. The words flow really well and Amanda Smeedy is a likable character. I always liked that she actually liked the beyond rambunctious children who were out to prank her. I liked that she calmly cleaned up a circus... quite literally. And I like that she just stayed as a calm center to everything going on.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite illustrator (he's done all the Dinosaur books like How does a dinosaur get well soon? -- I'll add more to this list). It's about 3 kids challenging their babysitter. Written in rhyme which Nate and I both love. SO CUTE YOU'LL FALL OVER.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute book my kids love me to read over and over to them.
It's about a babysitter watching wild kids and how she tames them.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only one of the Teague books that was not quite up to the high standards of the rest of his works.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great hit in Storytime!

[Julene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cute. Wish we had a babysitter like Amanda Smeedy.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

These three rascals in the book are my children. It's like somebody has been watching us :)