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Taking Care of Terrific
Fourteen-year-old Enid Crowley can't stand her name. When she takes a summer job baby-sitting young Joshua W. Cameron IV, Enid decides it's time for a change: she calls herself Cynthia, and Joshua becomes Tom Terrific. Every day they're off to Boston's Public Garden, where Enid hopes to meet people and find excitement.
It doesn't take long before Enid and her new park friends - Hawk, the saxophone player, and the old bag lady - are involved in the wildest adventure the park has ever seen. Their project is top secret. Nothing can go wrong. Or can it?
It doesn't take long before Enid and her new park friends - Hawk, the saxophone player, and the old bag lady - are involved in the wildest adventure the park has ever seen. Their project is top secret. Nothing can go wrong. Or can it?
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
3 people are currently reading
357 people want to read
About the author
Lois Lowry
143 books22.8k followersTaken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
April 24, 2018
This is a coming-of-age novella featuring Fourteen-year-old Enid Crowley and her adventure in a particular summer vacation which changes her life forever. Enid can't tolerate her name which she sees as a negative adjective from a Stephen King novel. She can't stand her family or her surroundings and has a judgmental view towards everyone.
However, soon she's given a baby-sitting job, taking young Joshua W. Cameron IV to the nearby public garden every afternoon. Enid decides to ignore every instruction the child's mother gives her and treats him to the wildest adventures of his life. Together they become the persons they want to become, Cynthia and Tom Terrific, and with their magical touch, everyone around them become someone else too.
The novella is undoubtedly amazing, however I do not think it's written for children. The vocabulary and the contents are not often kid-friendly and Enid is definitely not someone one should look up to. All the main characters in the book are somehow rebellious against the norms of the society and as much interesting as their expeditions sound, I honestly don't think those to be appropriate in real life. The novel may be suitable for pre-teens or teens, but not for children who might be influenced in a wrong way.
However, soon she's given a baby-sitting job, taking young Joshua W. Cameron IV to the nearby public garden every afternoon. Enid decides to ignore every instruction the child's mother gives her and treats him to the wildest adventures of his life. Together they become the persons they want to become, Cynthia and Tom Terrific, and with their magical touch, everyone around them become someone else too.
The novella is undoubtedly amazing, however I do not think it's written for children. The vocabulary and the contents are not often kid-friendly and Enid is definitely not someone one should look up to. All the main characters in the book are somehow rebellious against the norms of the society and as much interesting as their expeditions sound, I honestly don't think those to be appropriate in real life. The novel may be suitable for pre-teens or teens, but not for children who might be influenced in a wrong way.
July 16, 2019
I hesitated to read this book because a story about a girl babysitting a four-year-old and befriending a bag lady did not sound all that interesting to me. But I should have trusted Lois Lowry.
I love Enid. Precocious, sarcastic Enid. Man, I wish Lois had written/would write some books with an older teen/early 20s protagonist.
Yes, there are some dated/cringey mentions of fat camp and transvestites. And there is also the unfortunately not dated moment of arresting the black man.
The story is weird, not gonna lie. Why are we going to assume that all/only bag ladies want root beer popsicles? Why do they not actually speak to "the bag ladies" about the swan boats? Don't think too hard about it. Just read it and enjoy.
I love Enid. Precocious, sarcastic Enid. Man, I wish Lois had written/would write some books with an older teen/early 20s protagonist.
Yes, there are some dated/cringey mentions of fat camp and transvestites. And there is also the unfortunately not dated moment of arresting the black man.
The story is weird, not gonna lie. Why are we going to assume that all/only bag ladies want root beer popsicles? Why do they not actually speak to "the bag ladies" about the swan boats? Don't think too hard about it. Just read it and enjoy.
April 5, 2010
It's summer, and Enid is planning to spend her summer taking art classes, when she is offered a baby-sitting job for an adorable, imaginative 4-year-old boy named Tom Terrific. She takes him a few times a week to her favorite spot in Boston, the Public Garden. They end up having adventures with some new friends, organizing the local bag ladies to picket the popsicle stand because of the lack of root beer popsicles and then sneaking out at night to liberate a Swan Boat and give the bag ladies a ride.
This is one of those books that if I pick up, I cannot put down. Good thing it's short. I had to read this one after finishing Jane Eyre because there's this great exchange between Enid and the eccentric housekeeper, Grace, when Grace mentions that she's reading it and that she'd like to have an employer like Mr. Rochester. And Enid says to herself, wait until she finds out what Mr. Rochester is hiding in the attic. That's just one of the small scenes in this book that makes me giggle.
This is one of those books that if I pick up, I cannot put down. Good thing it's short. I had to read this one after finishing Jane Eyre because there's this great exchange between Enid and the eccentric housekeeper, Grace, when Grace mentions that she's reading it and that she'd like to have an employer like Mr. Rochester. And Enid says to herself, wait until she finds out what Mr. Rochester is hiding in the attic. That's just one of the small scenes in this book that makes me giggle.
August 13, 2008
Fourteen years old Enid, I mean, Cynthia, was taking care of little James Cameron, AKA Tom Terrific, for the summer. In the afternoons, they would go to the Public Garden, where they met certain people such as bag ladies, and the black man who played the saxophone. Cynthia learned how harsh the world can be, and how one can strive to make changes in it.
I would recommend this to pre-teens, especially those who were interested in baby-sitting. This is also a book by Lois Lowry, who was one of my favorite authors growing up.
I would recommend this to pre-teens, especially those who were interested in baby-sitting. This is also a book by Lois Lowry, who was one of my favorite authors growing up.
June 14, 2020
Two and a half stars, but more like two stars. I first read this when I was too young to understand it fully. That's clear to me now that I'm reading it as an adult. I'm delighted I found it again. I really remembered very little of it except for two major plot points. Enid is a fourteen-year-old with a criminal lawyer father and a radiologist mother. They hired an honestly really incompetent, wacky housekeeper-nanny. She's clearly supposed to be comic relief. It wasn't funny at all. The parents are typical out of touch, super rich ones, but done to parody levels. Lowry was probably going for "so focused and successful at their careers that they don't know their own daughter," but instead wrote characters that had me asking, "If you're this inattentive and scatterbrained, how have you kept your licenses to practice law and medicine this whole time? Your careers should be in shambles!"
Enid is super sarcastic, and sometimes this made me laugh. She doesn't like her name and picks a new one. So does the little boy she's babysitting, and this is where the book's title comes from. I thought that was kind of clever. Lowry wrote an incredibly true to life character in the horrid Wilma Sandroff--there's parents like that everywhere, who act that way, and for some bizarre reason, they often become family and child therapists. Their kids really do hate them and have active plans to flee. I didn't like Seth. I kept reading because the narrative voice was so engaging, and I wanted to learn if the scene I liked so much as a kid would still resonate with me as an adult. It didn't. I finished the book and neatened some of my apartment, trying to figure my thoughts. This was clearly intended as popcorn reading, even for kids. It was supposed to be warm and fuzzy. Instead, marginalized groups and different events are treated very lightly. Mostly, I feel apathy. I wanted this to be different than it turned out.
Enid is super sarcastic, and sometimes this made me laugh. She doesn't like her name and picks a new one. So does the little boy she's babysitting, and this is where the book's title comes from. I thought that was kind of clever. Lowry wrote an incredibly true to life character in the horrid Wilma Sandroff--there's parents like that everywhere, who act that way, and for some bizarre reason, they often become family and child therapists. Their kids really do hate them and have active plans to flee. I didn't like Seth. I kept reading because the narrative voice was so engaging, and I wanted to learn if the scene I liked so much as a kid would still resonate with me as an adult. It didn't. I finished the book and neatened some of my apartment, trying to figure my thoughts. This was clearly intended as popcorn reading, even for kids. It was supposed to be warm and fuzzy. Instead, marginalized groups and different events are treated very lightly. Mostly, I feel apathy. I wanted this to be different than it turned out.
October 10, 2018
I read this book multiple times as a child. It was the first book I voted for for the Young Reader's Choice Award, one of my many lightbulb memories of reading. I did a re-read to see how it holds up thirty-five years later.
The book is dated in a few ways. There are many early 1980s references that will make no sense to the kids of today and some terms are out of date: namely "transvestites" and "bag ladies"
But man, after this rereading, I think think this book really got under my skin. Was this the reason I moved to Boston after college? Was this the reason I see "bag ladies" as people with complex problems and not an annoyance to society? Was this the reason I love the song "Stardust" when I heard it years later?
The fact that Lois Lowry is a talented and intelligent author is not in dispute, and her skills are on full display here. The primary theme is identity formation. Enid hates her name, pointing out it rhymes with such words as "putrid" and "stupid." It's also about making your own decisions about rules. As the summer babysitter of a four-year-old boy she discards many of what she sees as ridiculous rules imposed by the child's mother.
As Cynthia (the name Enid has chosen for herself) and Tom Terrific (her babysitting charge) spend the summer in the bucolic setting of the Boston Public Garden, there are protests over root beer popsicles, a better understanding of the bag ladies who live in the park, and even some racial justice commentary. That this is all carried out while our characters are busy performing an illegal act makes this story that much more marvelous, though I wonder how parents today would receive its messages.
The book is dated in a few ways. There are many early 1980s references that will make no sense to the kids of today and some terms are out of date: namely "transvestites" and "bag ladies"
But man, after this rereading, I think think this book really got under my skin. Was this the reason I moved to Boston after college? Was this the reason I see "bag ladies" as people with complex problems and not an annoyance to society? Was this the reason I love the song "Stardust" when I heard it years later?
The fact that Lois Lowry is a talented and intelligent author is not in dispute, and her skills are on full display here. The primary theme is identity formation. Enid hates her name, pointing out it rhymes with such words as "putrid" and "stupid." It's also about making your own decisions about rules. As the summer babysitter of a four-year-old boy she discards many of what she sees as ridiculous rules imposed by the child's mother.
As Cynthia (the name Enid has chosen for herself) and Tom Terrific (her babysitting charge) spend the summer in the bucolic setting of the Boston Public Garden, there are protests over root beer popsicles, a better understanding of the bag ladies who live in the park, and even some racial justice commentary. That this is all carried out while our characters are busy performing an illegal act makes this story that much more marvelous, though I wonder how parents today would receive its messages.
April 18, 2020
This book put quite the smile on my face while I was reading it. The theme and plot created by this upmost rebellious child made me get hooked into the story and into the lives of the characters being portrayed. The characters all have amazing and symbolic representations behind them. From Hawk being perceived as a poor black man to the old lady being perceived as homeless. We see the character instinctually think these thoughts about these characters when in reality we realize that Hawk is a professor at Harvard and the old “bag” lady is a millionaire who had lost her husband. This book really makes you think about how you first perceive people and makes you think between the fine line of right and lawful. This book makes me question the modern laws in place. The group wanted to do what was right for the group of homeless ladies, but they also had to break the law to do this. Should they really be in trouble? Also, if the older lady was a millionaire. Why didn’t she just rent the park for the night or for a day to give free rides to all who can’t afford it. I mean, am I the only one thinking this deep into this?
October 22, 2022
Another masterpiece by Lois Lowry! I can’t believe I missed this book when I was a kid. The setting of gritty 1980s Boston is reminiscent of the Anastasia books. The main character of Enid is so kind to her housekeeper, her babysitting charge and strangers in the park who she has empathy for, yet she has contempt for the weird boy from school. She still grows as a person through the one summer this book covers. I love the relationship between her and Tom Terrific most of all!
June 11, 2018
This was a great book about Enid, age 14, and the boy she is babysitting, Joshua, age 4. It had some good lessons in it, and I would have given it 4 stars, except I was a little disturbed by the taking of God's name in vain here and there throughout the book. Why would Lowry put swearing in a children's book?
The reading level is 6.9
The reading level is 6.9
September 15, 2023
I really enjoyed this LFL find, but it is seriously dated and I can't think to whom I'd recommend it. The best part is how poetic it gets, just before the s* hits the fan. But the themes are lovely, too.
September 2, 2018
I remember really liking this when I was a kid. Re-read several times.
October 18, 2019
Liked it enough to buy the DVD.
January 21, 2021
Lois Lowry is always good, and this is her at her best: funny and clever and kind. I've loved this book since I was twelve.
April 27, 2024
An excerpt from this novel is used as part of a reading assessment that I administer to some of the students that I teach. Made me curious about the rest of it.
June 19, 2011
This book is so much fun! Without hesitation, I would put it into that relatively rare category that I term "short but sweet", books that can be read with a bare minimum of effort but which leave a discernible aftertaste of sweetness in their wake, because the story is so nice and the characters so full of life and love. I'm always up for reading this kind of book! Taking Care of Terrific is a pleasure to read, and if I could take the knowledge of the plot back out of my mind and read through it all again as if it were the first time, I would gladly do so.
The story begins with Cynthia Crowley, a teenager from Boston, taking on a part-time babysitting gig for a four-year old boy named Joshua W. Cameron IV (just "Tom Terrific" to Cynthia, who has shed the use of her own unwieldy first name [Enid] and understands why her babysitting charge would rather not be associated with his own ostentatious moniker) who lives in her neighborhood. Tom Terrific is from a single-parent family, living only with his mother, whose strictness in all matters pertaining to her young only son creates a somewhat smothering lifestyle for the boy. Tom is four years old and has never really played, or eaten candy, or petted a dog, or taken a bubble bath! Cynthia doesn't set out to break all of the rules set up by Tom's mother; it just sort of happens, and before long the two unlikely renegades have set up their own sort of alternate world that begins as soon as they turn the corner and leave Tom's house behind them on their daily trip to Boston's Public Garden.
The Public Garden is a curious and wonderful place, and the more time Cynthia and Tom spend there together drinking in the sights and having some of the experiences that Tom has so far been mostly deprived of in his short life, they become involved in a mischievous, but ultimately harmless, caper that will liven things up and grant both Cynthia and Tom the adventure they've been seeking. The experience will cost them something, though, and after their night of fun is complete, nothing will ever be quite the same for Cynthia and Tom again.
Now, there are a few minor things about this book that might make teachers or parents hesitate to include it as part of a school curriculum or purchase it for their kid to read. Cynthia and her friends take part in some activities that could be considered questionable, or even wrong, and they take Tom Terrific along for the ride even though he might be given the wrong impression about the dividing line between right and wrong. Personally, I wouldn't worry much about this. The reader really isn't asked to sympathize with anything morally ambiguous, and there are consequences to whatever ends up being done in the story that isn't quite right. The value of what the book teaches far outweighs consideration of anything else, in my opinion, and makes it well worth the time and energy to read.
I believe that the greatest lesson offered by Taking Care of Terrific is in the underlying idea that people will surprise you if you give them the chance, that not everyone's situation is as cut-and-dried as we usually assume at first sight. The way I see it, people tend to be able to consistently rise above snap judgments that are made about their lives and character simply because people are so much more complex than we often give them credit for being. If we give them a chance, they will often surprise us, just as each of us instinctively knows inside ourselves that if we are given the chance, we will be capable of surprising the people around us with the positive things that we can do.
Taking Care of Terrific is a lovely story that goes down as smoothly as pretty much anything else that I've read. Author Lois Lowry has shown herself to be admirably diverse in the type of writing that she can create, and she seems to be good at it all, from the solemn pathos of Number the Stars and The Giver to the hilarity of such satirical novels as The Willoughbys. Taking Care of Terrific fits more into the latter category, though it has a few moments of emotional connection, too, which is really above all else what makes this unique little journey so totally satisfying. I would give this book my enthusiastic recommendation.
The story begins with Cynthia Crowley, a teenager from Boston, taking on a part-time babysitting gig for a four-year old boy named Joshua W. Cameron IV (just "Tom Terrific" to Cynthia, who has shed the use of her own unwieldy first name [Enid] and understands why her babysitting charge would rather not be associated with his own ostentatious moniker) who lives in her neighborhood. Tom Terrific is from a single-parent family, living only with his mother, whose strictness in all matters pertaining to her young only son creates a somewhat smothering lifestyle for the boy. Tom is four years old and has never really played, or eaten candy, or petted a dog, or taken a bubble bath! Cynthia doesn't set out to break all of the rules set up by Tom's mother; it just sort of happens, and before long the two unlikely renegades have set up their own sort of alternate world that begins as soon as they turn the corner and leave Tom's house behind them on their daily trip to Boston's Public Garden.
The Public Garden is a curious and wonderful place, and the more time Cynthia and Tom spend there together drinking in the sights and having some of the experiences that Tom has so far been mostly deprived of in his short life, they become involved in a mischievous, but ultimately harmless, caper that will liven things up and grant both Cynthia and Tom the adventure they've been seeking. The experience will cost them something, though, and after their night of fun is complete, nothing will ever be quite the same for Cynthia and Tom again.
Now, there are a few minor things about this book that might make teachers or parents hesitate to include it as part of a school curriculum or purchase it for their kid to read. Cynthia and her friends take part in some activities that could be considered questionable, or even wrong, and they take Tom Terrific along for the ride even though he might be given the wrong impression about the dividing line between right and wrong. Personally, I wouldn't worry much about this. The reader really isn't asked to sympathize with anything morally ambiguous, and there are consequences to whatever ends up being done in the story that isn't quite right. The value of what the book teaches far outweighs consideration of anything else, in my opinion, and makes it well worth the time and energy to read.
I believe that the greatest lesson offered by Taking Care of Terrific is in the underlying idea that people will surprise you if you give them the chance, that not everyone's situation is as cut-and-dried as we usually assume at first sight. The way I see it, people tend to be able to consistently rise above snap judgments that are made about their lives and character simply because people are so much more complex than we often give them credit for being. If we give them a chance, they will often surprise us, just as each of us instinctively knows inside ourselves that if we are given the chance, we will be capable of surprising the people around us with the positive things that we can do.
Taking Care of Terrific is a lovely story that goes down as smoothly as pretty much anything else that I've read. Author Lois Lowry has shown herself to be admirably diverse in the type of writing that she can create, and she seems to be good at it all, from the solemn pathos of Number the Stars and The Giver to the hilarity of such satirical novels as The Willoughbys. Taking Care of Terrific fits more into the latter category, though it has a few moments of emotional connection, too, which is really above all else what makes this unique little journey so totally satisfying. I would give this book my enthusiastic recommendation.
October 9, 2016
Well done; engaging and interesting.
November 1, 2014
Fourteen year old Enid Irene Crowley lives on Marlborough St. in Boston, MA, with her lawyer father, her radiologist mother, and the family’s somewhat eccentric live-in housekeeper Mrs. Kolodny. She goes to the Carstairs School where her best friends are Trina Bentley and Emily Wentworth but definitely not Seth Sandroff whose father owns a television station and whose mother is a famous child psychologist, though with her other friends away at their camps she starts hanging out with Seth. Named for her father’s very rich great aunt, she hates her name and calls herself Cynthia. For the summer she has enrolled in a morning art class at the Museum of Fine Arts but will be babysitting four year old, over-protected Joshua Warwick Cameron IV, who doesn’t like his name either and wants to be called Tom Terrific, in the afternoons, planning to take him with her to the Public Garden to play while she draws assignments for her class.
In the Garden, Enid/Cynthia and Joshua/Tom make friends with a tall African-American saxophone player called Hawk and a bunch of old bag ladies. One day Tom counted 24 bag ladies in the park. After a successful adventure organizing a picket with the bag ladies to bring back root beer flavored popsicles, they concoct another adventure, with Seth’s help, to give the bag ladies a ride on the swan boats. The project is top secret, and they plan things very carefully so nothing can go wrong. Or can it? And what will Enid do when she is accused of kidnapping? There is actually a cute story somewhere in here, but author Lois Lowry, who has won two Newbery Medals for Number the Stars, which I liked, and The Giver, for which I personally didn’t care, has loaded it down with a lot of unnecessary baggage. The name of God is used as an exclamation, and the term “omigod” appears rather often, along with childish slang terms (crap, pee) and euphemisms (heck, darn).
Perhaps worse than this, Enid signs a petition regarding transvestites, talks with Mrs. Kolodny about “preverts,” speaks of Mrs. Kolodny’s gothic romances as stories in which heroines are seduced by sinister men, has a discussion with Seth about heroin-using prostitutes, jumps to the conclusion that when Ms. Cameron says that she is going away on a business trip she is really going off on a weekend with her boyfriend (which seems to end up being true), talks with Mrs. Kolodny about one of her soap operas that involves a lot of immorality, says that a man looks as if he were stoned, and describes Ms. Cameron’s dress as “low necked with lots of cleavage.” Most godly parents would probably rather not have their pre-teen and middle-school children introduced to such sordid topics. In addition, Enid does some lying and breaks Ms. Cameron’s rules for Joshua, and their escapade in the Garden involves some actual criminal activity—but, of course, it’s all in the name of a good cause, which is simply saying that the end justifies the means. There are also references to drinking wine and beer and to slow dancing. I’m sorry, but I really can’t give this book a very good rating, especially for children.
In the Garden, Enid/Cynthia and Joshua/Tom make friends with a tall African-American saxophone player called Hawk and a bunch of old bag ladies. One day Tom counted 24 bag ladies in the park. After a successful adventure organizing a picket with the bag ladies to bring back root beer flavored popsicles, they concoct another adventure, with Seth’s help, to give the bag ladies a ride on the swan boats. The project is top secret, and they plan things very carefully so nothing can go wrong. Or can it? And what will Enid do when she is accused of kidnapping? There is actually a cute story somewhere in here, but author Lois Lowry, who has won two Newbery Medals for Number the Stars, which I liked, and The Giver, for which I personally didn’t care, has loaded it down with a lot of unnecessary baggage. The name of God is used as an exclamation, and the term “omigod” appears rather often, along with childish slang terms (crap, pee) and euphemisms (heck, darn).
Perhaps worse than this, Enid signs a petition regarding transvestites, talks with Mrs. Kolodny about “preverts,” speaks of Mrs. Kolodny’s gothic romances as stories in which heroines are seduced by sinister men, has a discussion with Seth about heroin-using prostitutes, jumps to the conclusion that when Ms. Cameron says that she is going away on a business trip she is really going off on a weekend with her boyfriend (which seems to end up being true), talks with Mrs. Kolodny about one of her soap operas that involves a lot of immorality, says that a man looks as if he were stoned, and describes Ms. Cameron’s dress as “low necked with lots of cleavage.” Most godly parents would probably rather not have their pre-teen and middle-school children introduced to such sordid topics. In addition, Enid does some lying and breaks Ms. Cameron’s rules for Joshua, and their escapade in the Garden involves some actual criminal activity—but, of course, it’s all in the name of a good cause, which is simply saying that the end justifies the means. There are also references to drinking wine and beer and to slow dancing. I’m sorry, but I really can’t give this book a very good rating, especially for children.
September 5, 2015
I read this book when I was 10 years old and already a big Anastasia Krupnik fan. I was not disappointed in this new character, and I would have liked to see a few more books about her.
Enid Crowley lives in Boston and this summer she has decided to reinvent herself. A big part of that process is informally changing her name from the despised Enid to Cynthia. As Cynthia, she gets a summer job babysitting Joshua Cameron, a rich, sheltered four-year-old who is nevertheless a bright, well-behaved and all-around lovable kid.
Enid and Joshua spend their afternoons in Boston's Public Garden, where they call themselves Cynthia and Tom Terrific. They make friends with a saxophonist named Hawk and a bag lady, and together they stage a picket of the Popsicle man in order to bring back root beer popsicles.
It turns out that Joshua's fondest wish is to ride the park's Swan Boat, but his mother forbids it, pointing out that with all the tourists riding the boats, there are just too many germs. Joshua is clearly disappointed but accepts the rule with good grace, but Enid and her frenemy Seth decide to make this happen for him, with the help of Hawk, and as a present not only to Joshua but to a couple dozen other bag ladies who participated in their Popsicle picket.
This book is a bit "messagey" as somebody pointed out, but the story itself is so engaging I didn't mind the message at all. The characters are colorful and above all, likable. Enid, despite her family's wealth and her parents' distant presence in her life, is a thoughtful, unspoiled girl who has a heart of gold.
The book is fairly dated now, but that's not really surprising as it was published in 1981. References to "The Love Boat" and the Donahue Show, Ricardo Montalban doing car commercials, and Enid thinking nine dollars for "a grossly loaded" pizza delivery is expensive, serve to enhance the setting of the story rather than date the plot.
My favorite quote is the book's epigraph, if that's what it's called: "Keep a green tre in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come." It's a Chinese proverb, and it fits the story beautifully as Enid and Joshua become Cynthia and Tom in the special green place that is the Public Garden.
I also enjoyed Enid's description of her beloved but flaky housekeeper, Mrs. Kolodny: "She looks as if somebody has frosted her onto the top of a cake and she will be there, staring into space, forever."
Enid Crowley lives in Boston and this summer she has decided to reinvent herself. A big part of that process is informally changing her name from the despised Enid to Cynthia. As Cynthia, she gets a summer job babysitting Joshua Cameron, a rich, sheltered four-year-old who is nevertheless a bright, well-behaved and all-around lovable kid.
Enid and Joshua spend their afternoons in Boston's Public Garden, where they call themselves Cynthia and Tom Terrific. They make friends with a saxophonist named Hawk and a bag lady, and together they stage a picket of the Popsicle man in order to bring back root beer popsicles.
It turns out that Joshua's fondest wish is to ride the park's Swan Boat, but his mother forbids it, pointing out that with all the tourists riding the boats, there are just too many germs. Joshua is clearly disappointed but accepts the rule with good grace, but Enid and her frenemy Seth decide to make this happen for him, with the help of Hawk, and as a present not only to Joshua but to a couple dozen other bag ladies who participated in their Popsicle picket.
This book is a bit "messagey" as somebody pointed out, but the story itself is so engaging I didn't mind the message at all. The characters are colorful and above all, likable. Enid, despite her family's wealth and her parents' distant presence in her life, is a thoughtful, unspoiled girl who has a heart of gold.
The book is fairly dated now, but that's not really surprising as it was published in 1981. References to "The Love Boat" and the Donahue Show, Ricardo Montalban doing car commercials, and Enid thinking nine dollars for "a grossly loaded" pizza delivery is expensive, serve to enhance the setting of the story rather than date the plot.
My favorite quote is the book's epigraph, if that's what it's called: "Keep a green tre in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come." It's a Chinese proverb, and it fits the story beautifully as Enid and Joshua become Cynthia and Tom in the special green place that is the Public Garden.
I also enjoyed Enid's description of her beloved but flaky housekeeper, Mrs. Kolodny: "She looks as if somebody has frosted her onto the top of a cake and she will be there, staring into space, forever."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2013
I love this book. I do not know why I love this book. Maybe it's Enid-- I mean Cynthia and I's shared love of words? Maybe it's the fact that I was laughing the whole way through? Maybe because I felt like I had the whole, not so well known book all to myself?
Perhaps it was all those reasons.
See this is the story of a 14 year old baby sitter who calls herself Cynthia. The little boy she watches looks up o her and decides to call himself Terrific hence the name, Taking Care of Terrific. The book is full of their hilarious misadventures.
I have to hand it to the author, I really love the characters. There's the young adult protagonist who is starting to view the world differently. The adorable little boy she is taking care of. The angry friend. WAIT! Now I really did like Seth. It was a nice change to have a friend like him in a book, if you read it you'll see what I mean. The "nanny" who obsesses over soap opera's and bad romance novels. In the end the cast had me choking on water from laughter.
In conclusion, I loved this book. I'm currently torn between sharing it with my friends and keeping it to myself. But since I don't know you, do yourself a favor and read this book. I think it's sad that my generation doesn't know it exists. I recommend this book to girls (though boys, if they give it a chance, might like it too) 12 and up.
Perhaps it was all those reasons.
See this is the story of a 14 year old baby sitter who calls herself Cynthia. The little boy she watches looks up o her and decides to call himself Terrific hence the name, Taking Care of Terrific. The book is full of their hilarious misadventures.
I have to hand it to the author, I really love the characters. There's the young adult protagonist who is starting to view the world differently. The adorable little boy she is taking care of. The angry friend. WAIT! Now I really did like Seth. It was a nice change to have a friend like him in a book, if you read it you'll see what I mean. The "nanny" who obsesses over soap opera's and bad romance novels. In the end the cast had me choking on water from laughter.
In conclusion, I loved this book. I'm currently torn between sharing it with my friends and keeping it to myself. But since I don't know you, do yourself a favor and read this book. I think it's sad that my generation doesn't know it exists. I recommend this book to girls (though boys, if they give it a chance, might like it too) 12 and up.
October 7, 2013
Enid Crowley hates her name because is rhymes with words like stupid, putrid, and fetid. One summer, she decides to change her name to Cynthia. When she starts baby-sitting Joshua W. Cameron IV, she promptly changes his name, too. While they are together, he is Tom Terrific. Each day, they go to Boston's Public Garden. There, they meet and befriend an old bag lady. Prompted by the bag lady’s love for root beer popsicles, Enid and Terrific picket the popsicle man because he refuses to sell that flavor. Their protest is so successful that the popsicle man relents. Their next project is even bigger and more secretive. Joshua's mother won't let him ride the swan boats that glide daily along the park's river. Of course, the bag ladies can't ride either because of the social stigma attached to their lifestyle. So, Enid devises a plan to borrow one of the boats and give Joshua and the bag ladies a ride. All goes well until the end of the ride when they’re met by the police. Lois Lowry certainly has a knack for creating memorable characters, and fourteen year-old Enid is no exception. Her desire to make people happy shines during the summer that she babysits Terrific! The poor boy lives in a house with so many rules that Enid decides to help him break a few so he can experience some real fun.
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December 30, 2020This is another one that I really enjoy, but I wouldn't recommend to kids under my care. The voice is lovely, because it is Lois Lowry, but some of the subject matter has not aged very well. For example, Enid signs a petition denouncing trans people, and although she doesn't understand it, there is a slur used. There are also mentions of "preverts" (spelled that way, don't look at me, spellcheck), diet talk that I'm really not fond of, fat camp for two children which makes my head want to explode. They are things that the acceptability has changed on over the years (over thirty!) and therefore, they'd probably be better read together with a child, taking time to explain how things have changed, and the attitudes people used to have, and how these things affect people today. Read the rest on my blog.
March 20, 2015
Enid wants to go by Cynthia. Joshua Warwick Cameron IV wants to go by Tom Terrific. When Cynthia begins babysitting young Tom and taking him to the park, they make an unusual assortment of friends including a sax-playing man named Hawk and a mysterious "bag lady". Together the odd bunch works together to fight for the right of having root beer popsicles, and then, with the help of Cynthia's classmates "General" Seth Sandroff, they set their sights on a new goal--one that might get them into a world of trouble.
I liked this book. Lowry does a great job of writing simple stories but making them impactful. This book is full of important themes that are subtly woven into the story. There is very little to warn readers about as far as strong content goes. There is some law breaking, and Mrs. Kolodny, the housemaid, talks generally about scandalous love stories.
I liked this book. Lowry does a great job of writing simple stories but making them impactful. This book is full of important themes that are subtly woven into the story. There is very little to warn readers about as far as strong content goes. There is some law breaking, and Mrs. Kolodny, the housemaid, talks generally about scandalous love stories.
May 16, 2008
This wasn't like the other Lowry books I've read before, but it's *really* good, just like her others. Enid, who prefers to be called Cynthia, is supposed to be having the best summer of her life. She is fourteen, taking art classes and just got a great babysitting job for a cool little kid who prefers to be called Tom Terrific. Cynthia and Tom's adventures in the park have them encounter Hawk, a saxophone player, and a bag lady--who help them discover even more adventures. An annoying classmate, Swan Boats and rootbeer popsicles round out the summer.
Great commentary on class and privilege. Very enjoyable read. Great cast of unique characters--Mrs. Kolodny is laugh-out-loud funny.
Great commentary on class and privilege. Very enjoyable read. Great cast of unique characters--Mrs. Kolodny is laugh-out-loud funny.
August 18, 2009
So I have this blog where I read books I read as an adolescent and review them from an adult perspective. I love doing it, though I'm generally derisive and snarky towards most of the books I chose to read back then.
NOT THIS ONE!
The protag Enid/Cynthia is a fantastic narrator. The characters are surprisingly deep and well-rounded for a YA novel. And it has a good message without being overly preachy.
One point off for considering the popsicle man to be "The Man," if you know what I mean. He has no power! Don't protest him!
NOT THIS ONE!
The protag Enid/Cynthia is a fantastic narrator. The characters are surprisingly deep and well-rounded for a YA novel. And it has a good message without being overly preachy.
One point off for considering the popsicle man to be "The Man," if you know what I mean. He has no power! Don't protest him!
June 16, 2011
Most of my reasons that I like this book is because of the charcters. The charcters were funny. Especially the 'nanny' for Enid. She is this total flightly lady that is suposed to be taking care of Enid, but instead Enid is taking care of her. Most days that nanny--is watching soap operas or reading real cheezy romance books.
I loved how Enid changes her name to Cynthia and it insires the 4 year old boy to make a new name for himself as well, Tom Terriffic.
Funny read, but it does read like an 80's book, which I am not all that fond of. Still funny and has quirky charcters.
I loved how Enid changes her name to Cynthia and it insires the 4 year old boy to make a new name for himself as well, Tom Terriffic.
Funny read, but it does read like an 80's book, which I am not all that fond of. Still funny and has quirky charcters.
April 12, 2015
What a bizarre story. Also, the cover of this edition is really misleading - Tom Terrific is not that young. He's more like four or five, not a toddler. What's most confusing about this book is that the main character (who's name I cannot recall) isn't really introduced to us that much. You just kind of meet her from her (increasingly bizarre) actions. But, you know, this is part of the path Lowry was on on her way to making more incredible books.
February 27, 2016
Such a fun, enjoyable read! I loved this book and the story and the characters. Everything about this book was such a heart warming surprise that will leave you wanting more. I definitely wish there was a second part-that's how much I loved the characters! I couldn't rate this book 5 stars just because there wasn't much character development. Seth kind of just pops up and I wish there would have been more into their relationship before. Other than that, a solid 4 stars!
January 20, 2013
Sharply insightful toward its delightfully ordinary characters, Taking Care tells a sweet, deceptively simple story without indulging in improbably rosy resolutions. Enid is a beautifully realized protagonist, with a wry voice and a poignant discontentment with her own identity. Lowry renders her coming-of-age with her typical empathy toward the average adolescent.
November 15, 2019
So far its a mysterious and sad book about a girl who's 14 and gets arrested... If you think I spoiled it I didn't it says that in the beginning it's one of those books that starts in the end. I just finished and i would say the overall message is that little people can do big things.
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September 4, 2007Lowry, Lois
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