Amusing, sly new illustrations enliven this reprint of a 1978 title. When a little girl's father announces that he and the child's mother are going out for the evening, the girl uses a variety of strategies to dissuade her parents. She offers to go with them, packing her essentials, including ballet shoes and monster book. She threatens dire calamities in their absence--storms, illness, and even a random moose attack. Then hip, easy-going babysitter Sarah arrives, and the child ends up having a lovely evening, sprinkling pickles on her pizza and applying clown makeup. In the morning, she's delighted to find that her parents have indeed returned home, and she wakes them with kisses. Harris' playful, rhythmic text, written in the defiant heroine's voice, skillfully conveys a child's attempt to mask fear and discomfort with blustering protests, and Bliss' winning ink-and-watercolor drawings add clever humor and spot-on details from a child's viewpoint. Many children will see themselves in the anxious girl as she tries to command her distracted parents' attention. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved