By: Timothy Bush
Publisher: Crown Publishers, a Random House Co; 1998
Reading Level: ~7-8 yrs
Number of Pages: 30
Genre: Science Fiction
Summary: One night Benjamin McFadden's parents go to a "Rings of Saturn Preservation Dance" and Benjamin is left home with a robot babysitter. The Robot states the time and says that it is time for Benjamin to go to bed, but Benjamin wants to stay up and play. The Robot will not have it and takes him into his room to get ready for bed. Benjamin then does something you should never ever do. He opens the the Robot's back and tries reprogramming it to be more fun. The Robot doesn't understand what "fun" is so Benjamin explains it by playing games, reading books, playing music, eating cookies, cake, waffles, burgers, milkshakes, and fries. After all this "fun" Benjamin is tired and tells the Robot Babysitter that he wants to go to bed, but now the Robot only cares about fun and turns the everything into robots that only do "fun" things. Benjamin doesn't know what to do so he calls the Babysitter Help Line, but the Robot took the phone away before the lady could tell him the "ultimate password". He tries every password he can think of and nothing works. It is quite comical. But when the Robot Babysitter picked up his robot cat he threatened to tell the Robot on his parents. "Parents" was the ultimate password and the Robot returned to normal and sent Benjamin straight to bed while it cleaned up the giant mess it made. Benjamin's parents finally get home and he pretends to be asleep when they come in to give him a kiss. When they leave he says to his cat, "What a weird night!" To which the Cat replies, "FUN!"
Problems: Benjamin doesn't seem to obey his parents or babysitter.
Reaction: I remember having this book in our home as a kid, but i never read it or even looked at it. I was very surprised how much I actually enjoyed it! The illustrations are very warm and rich in color which give the book a feeling of high energy. It's a really fun read with a good moral too.
Recommendations: I would recommend this to children between the ages of kindergartners to about 8 or 9 year olds.
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