LOOKING AFTER LITTLE ELLIE

The text may describe a straightforward babysitting job, but the pictures tell a very different story, as Little Ellie’s an elephant and the sitters, a family of mice. “When Flora called to ask us to look after Little Ellie, we said yes. After all, you have to help your friends.” But imagine the challenges of feeding, entertaining and—wait for it—changing a baby who’s at least a hundred times bigger. Using a combination of large, simple, painted figures and clipped photos of pacifiers, crockery and balls of what may be actual elephant dung, the Archers prove equal to the task. Their scenes of dismayed-looking mice mopping up after a snack, woozily dragging off a used diaper, hauling an immense stroller to and from the park, then finally kissing their charge goodbye and collapsing back in their own living room (“It was a big day, but we didn’t mind. After all, she was just a little baby”) will leave young readers in stitches. The most hilarious take on the theme since Doug Johnson’s Never Babysit the Hippopotamuses! (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)