MR. LARGE IN CHARGE

We have heard this particular song before—Mom needs a day in bed and Dad cheerfully takes over, with disastrous results. Here the beloved Large family returns to amplify the context of Mrs. Large’s original attempt at Five Minutes Peace (1986), that effort being a bubble-bath soak. Mommy comes down to breakfast on a Saturday morning feeling ill, and her spouse, Mr. Large, sends her back upstairs to bed. But her rest is disturbed by son Lester’s crunching vacuuming noises, Laura and the baby, who is dusting mother herself, and the burning smell created when Dad gets distracted by the soccer game while making lunch. When Dad trips over a rake, Lester runs to his mother searching for bandages. Mrs. Large decides she feels much better now and invites the whole family onto the bed for a snack. The story’s telling and its pictures are funny, even if the premise isn’t particularly new. (Picture book. 4-7)