Trials, Triumphs, and Stinky Diapers! Superheroes Don't Babysit by Amber Hicks

The caped superheroine is just about to save the city from the evil Zog when Dad appears, requesting a really big favor...

...KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR LITTLE BROTHER?

Superheroes don't babysit, but A deal is struck and Zog will have to wait! It's Super Sitter on Duty!

Right away, he whines that he's hungry, so, being a dutiful superhero sitter, she'll make him a healthy snack. Right away, he won't eat it. He'll demand an ice cream sundae. He'll also insist on squeezing on the chocolate sauce from the big bottle. Right away, she's got her first super cleanup feat to perform! Then, she'll have to read his favorite story to him.

SEVEN TIMES!

And while she's heroically wiping up chocolate syrup from the floor, she smells something really stinky.... and it's not the trash!

After a heroic cleanup and a rubber-gloved diaper change, (Superheroes don't call their daddies to handle poopy diapers), her little brother runs straight to her room and asks to play with her dolls! They are NOT dolls, she explains. They are...

ACTION FIGURES!

And he can't play with them..., but OOOPS! That one's broken! But then he says he's sorry and...

HE'LL HUG HER.

And he'll fall asleep against her sweetly and she'll realize...

EVEN SUPERHEROES NEED SIDEKICKS!

Awwww! Not even a mighty superhero sister can resist the charms of a trusting and sleeping toddler, in Amber Hicks' Superheroes Don't Babysit (Beaming Books, 2020). This is a super sweet story of sibling rivalries resolved which shows that true superheroes can conquer more than bad guys, illustrated with super charm in the sympathetic artwork of Kyle Reed. Says Kirkus Reviews, this one ... "combines familiar picture-book tropes into something clever and new."

Duck Daycare? Henry Babysits by Robert Quackenbush

HENRY THE DUCK WAS ENJOYING A QUIET DAT AT HOME WHEN THE DOORBELL RANG. IT WAS HENRY'S FRIEND CLARA WITH HER BABY NEPHEW. "WOULD YOU MIND BABYSITTING FOR MY NEPHEW?" SHE ASKED. "IT'S EASY. IT'S MY NEPHEW'S NAPTIME, AND HE WILL BE FAST ASLEEP.

Henry wasn't sure he knew much about babysitting but he agreed to help Clara out. He put the sleeping baby on the sofa and went back to his easy chair and his newspaper. But not for long! Ding Dong! goes the doorbell.

But not for long. His next door neighbor has noticed Henry is babysitting for Clara. She drops in to leave her kitten, who begins to cry as soon as she leaves. Henry is fretting about the crying waking Clara's nephew, so when another neighbor comes by, asking to leave her baby Amanda there, Henry agrees when he sees Amanda's bottle full of milk. He pours some of Amanda's milk into a little bowl which makes the kitty happy. By this time, Amanda clearly needs a diaper change. But then the doorbell rings again.

Henry’s impromptu Duckie Daycare seems to be popular, as a mother monkey drops off her rambunctious toddler and a diaper bag, remarking that he may soon need a diaper change. Henry diapers Amanda and the monkey, just as another neighbor stops off to deliver her young puppy. Henry readily agrees to babysit the neighbor's young puppy because he comes with a bagful of toys and a ball. Henry tosses the toddlers the toys and they proceed to wreck the room with their rambunctious play. Finally, worn out, they fall asleep amid the toys all over the floor. Henry's living room is a mess when the parents come back for their little ones.

But Clara's nephew is still sleeping soundly on the sofa when she returns for him.

"You see, Henry," said Clara, "babysitting is easy!"

Robert Quackenbush’s new edition of Henry Babysits (Henry Duck) (Aladdin, 2020) has all the droll humor of the veteran author’s other picture books, as Henry’s babysitting problems increase exponentially with each added client. For more fun with the neighbors, share this one with Cynthia Rylant’s Scholastic Reader Level 3: Poppleton In Winter (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Search and Rescue Kitties! Stick Cat: Two Cats to the Rescue by Tom Watson

Former City Kitties Stick Cat and Edith are happily living with their human friends, Tiffany and Goose, who rescued them from their hard-knock city lives and moved the cat into their house near the woods. But they especially love their toddler daughter Millie.

On day Tiffany heads out for some grocery shopping, calling to Goose, busy doing the breakfast dishes, to watch Millie while she's gone. Goose, however is running the disposal and can't hear her, and assumes that she's taking Millie along for the ride.

And when Millie toddles outside, Stick Cat realizes that the humans don't know that her little bare feet are taking her out of sight of the house, joyfully following a yellow butterfly.

Instantly, Stick goes into rescue mode, followed by his co-cat, Edith. Millie trails behind the butterfly into a little meadow, where there is a large puddle with a log beside it, where the butterfly has stopped to rest.

"It's amazing, just amazing!" said Edith.

Stick looks around, confused! It's kinda pretty... but.... UMMMM?

"It's the OCEAN, silly," said Edith. "I'm sure we'll see a dolphin or a whale any minute now!"

Stick is very fond of Edith and her long eyelashes are lovable, as she points out frequently, but Edith is not the brightest candle in the candelabra. Stick decides to distract Edith and get back on the job of getting Millie back into the house before her parents miss her.  Edith offers to solve the butterfly problem by squashing it.

What? This is not an attractive side of Edith, Stick muses.

Stick suggests that Edith try to lead Millie back home, but before Edith can come up with her best purr, the butterfly gets tired of the log and flutters away across the puddle. Millie climbs out onto the log, which slides into the puddle and floats after the butterfly, who is flitting away into the woods.

Now Stick has to figure out how to get Millie and the log out of the middle of the puddle. Millie, on the other hand, is now absorbed with splashing her feet in the very middle of the big puddle.

Cats hate and fear water, but Stick summons his powers and with a daring feline leap rescues Millie from the, er, ocean, only to watch her toddle deeper into the woods after the butterfly. Stick and Edith track her down just as she starts to fuss, but they are out of ideas to get her safely back home.

But it's Stick Dog and his canine pals, Mutt, Karen, and Stripes, just in time, in Tom Watson's Stick Cat: Two Cats to the Rescue (Harper, 2019). In comic book style, Watson's stories of Stick Cat is a hilarious spin-off of his Stick Dog tales. Stick Cat, like Stick Dog, is the brains of the operation, while their dopey noodle-head buddies provide most of the giggles in this latest in Watson's graphic novels series, just right for fans of Big Nate: From the Top (Volume 1) and its bazillions of sequels, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1) and sequels. Great for reluctant readers, and for anyone who likes comic stories with the benefit of insight into behavior and doing the right thing.