Best Case Scenario! Llama, Llama, Meets the Babysitter by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan

Mama Llama has an announcement. She is going out, and Grandma can't come. Little Llama will have a babysitter!

Llama Llama immediately goes right into disaster mode.

"WILL SHE PLAY MY FAVORITE GAME?"

"WILL SHE EVEN KNOW MY NAME?

Will she fix his favorite snack? What if Mama Llama does not come back?

Llama is both SAD and MAD! He makes a plan to be bad!

"I WON'T HAVE FUN!

INSTEAD I WILL RUN!

But when Mama Llama opens the door, he sees a face he's seen before. It's Molly, the girl at the ice cream store who makes his favorite cones. And not only that, but she has brought a bag full of small ice cream cups and toppings to sample. All's well that begins with ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce and cherries on top! And then, there's kickball in the backyard with Molly, who never gets too tired.

ICE CREAM, READING, HIDE 'N' SEEK,

LLAMA COULD DO THIS ALL WEEK!

And as Mama Llama tells Llama it's time to hit the sack, Little Llama asks when Molly's coming back, in Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan's just published, Llama Llama Meets the Babysitter (Viking Books, 2021).

Thankfully for youngsters, author Reed Duncan has taken over the late Anna Dewdney's warm and funny rhyming mother-and-son early childhood stories for youngsters yet to come, along with the delightfully expressive illustrations of JT Morrow.

Share this one with another milestone story, Llama Llama Loose Tooth Drama (Viking Books, 2020).

The Three Rs! Llama Llama Loves to Read by Reed Duncan and Anna Dewdney

Friends at school--there's nothing better.
Llama learns all the letters!

No two letters are the same.
But every letter has a name.

Llama Llama proudly says the alphabet. He can recognize each letter. But Teacher says that not ALL.

What?

It turns out that the letters don't do much by themselves. They stand for sounds. Letters are like the pieces of a puzzle. Each letter has a sound that can be heard. Put them together and...

Letters together make a word!

Some words are short and easy. B + E makes "BE." Llama Llama gets it! He can read!

But wait! Some words are long, and the letters don't follow the rule. What the use of all this school?

Llama's hooves wave in the air.
Some words are hard. It isn't fair!

But Llama's teacher points out that he has to be patient. Sound out the letters slowly and listen for what you hear, she says. What word makes sense in the sentence? Try to remember it; you'll see it again. And soon that word will be an old friend.

Llama Llama and his old friends Nellie Gnu and Billy Goat work hard together all the way through the lesson. Soon there are more words they can read. Way to G + O, guys!

Words make rhythm. Words make rhyme.
Words make books for story time.

And Llama Llama can't wait to get home to read for Mama Llama, in Reed Duncan's Llama Llama Loves to Read (Viking Books, 2018).  He's definitely on his way. Working with the late Anna Dewdney's ideas for this book, Duncan captures much of the appeal of Dewdney's clever couplets, and illustrator JT Morrow reproduces the warm style of Dewdney's loving lines and coloration in a story in which youngsters will rejoice with Llama Llama as he himself becomes a reader!

Pair this one with Tedd Arnold's classic Theodor Geisel Award-winning series of beginning readers which began with Hi! Fly Guy (See reviews here.)