Jake and His Cousin Sidney,Used

Product Description Simon James is in his element with this sidesplitting series of books about the delightfully devilish Jake. Every selfrespecting child will want to collect all three!Jake is difficult. Jake is a problem. Jake the impish creation of the inimitable Simon James, and star of this outrageous trio of picture books is every childs wicked alter ego and every parents worst nightmare, if only nightmares could be as funny as Jake.Jake hates helping anyone with anything, so, in THE DAY JAKE VACUUMED, he decides to funnel up his family, one by one! No one who knows Jake wants to babysit him, and in JAKE AND THE BABYSITTER, only the "new neighbor" will take him on. And since Jake dislikes babies almost as much as he does babysitters, trouble cant be far away in JAKE AND HIS COUSIN SIDNEY. From Publishers Weekly With an outsize gift for comic hyperbole, James (Leon and Bob) launches a trio of infectiously funny paperbacks in the U.S. starring a kid with an Attilalike talent for laying waste to his surroundings. Each book begins with the same two sentences "Jake was difficult. Jake was a problem" and then proceeds with a plot that goes goofily haywire. In Babysitter, for example, the giggles arise from something James wryly leaves unstated in the text that Jake's caretaker is actually a gorilla, who is trying to pass for human with a hilariously illfitting wardrobe (Jake's parents don't notice because they're grateful anyone will show up to babysit their bad seed, while Jake is overjoyed to find someone who shares his delight in destruction).The tables turn with equally madcap results in Sidney, when Jake looks after his baby cousin. In Vacuumed, the most imaginative entry, the pintsize antihero discovers that he can hoover up the family cat, then reasons that if he's going to get in trouble, "I might as well make it big trouble!" and vacuums up his entire family and their belongings (plus "a whole page of this book"). In his exuberant watercolor cartoons, James visually articulates Jake's unalloyed enjoyment of his own incorrigibility by letting Jake's mischievous grin occupy most of his face and a blackink scribble suffice for his hair. Jake's glee (and his ability to emerge undaunted from the wreckage) should tickle the Dennis the Menace that lurks within even the most wellbehaved child. Ages 37. (Aug.) Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author Simon James is the authorillustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including LEON AND BOB, which was named a NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Best Illustrated Book of the Year. "I dont like stories that are too polite, with nice things always happening," he admits. "Life isnt like that. I visit many, many schools and book fairs, and I like kids because theyre absolutely honest." Simon James says that of all his books, the series about fiendish Jake is a favorite of the schoolchildren he visits among them Harry Kenny, age five and a half, who is quoted as saying, "These are the best books I ever read in my life!"